Wish Upon A Star
by Dragonessa Smith
Summary: Another Yule Ball Alternative...FINALLY finished, yippee!
1. Wish Upon A Star

Wish Upon A Star  
  
Disclaimer: Nothing's mine but the plot.  
  
If Hermione had never gotten asked to the Yule Ball by Krum...rather sad, I suppose. After I wrote this, I realized that instead of Hermione's thoughts, I had written my own...very sad, in that case. So if it seems a bit OOC, you know why. I just came home from a dance, and I sat through all the slow songs, with this sad look on my face, and I know at least four of my guy friends saw me sitting there like a pathetic loser, but not one of them even came and asked if I was all right! My other friend got asked three times, and each time she complained about it afterwards! I almost went "At least they asked you!"   
  
Okay, now that my little bout of self-pity is over, on with the fic. (Basically a longer bout of self pity.) Also, I have no feelings for my best friend's worst enemy, (No matter what she says. Honestly, just because he's nice to me and horrible to her...) And of course he didn't ask me to dance. (That mean old wiener-head.) But I put that in so it could have a happy ending for Hermione, even if it didn't for me. (Big self-pity right there.)  
  
P.S: In this version, they played muggle music, because I'm too tired to think of some witty wizard song names. And Draco is uncharacteristically nice in this story. Hermione's uncharacteristically cynical. This Author's Note is uncharacteristically long.   
  
P.P.S.: The story turned out longer than I expected. Say in your review if you want me to continue. I have another part I could write for this, but it could also be a whole other story.  
  
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I hate slow songs.  
  
Well, I like them, but I hate them, well, I like most of them, not just, well, not when I'm sitting on a stupid chair at a stupid table while everyone else is dancing.  
  
Harry is dancing with Parvati. Ron with Padma. Neville and Ginny.   
  
I glanced around the Great Hall. Good lord, even Crabbe and Goyle were dancing. (With Pansy and Millicent, of all people.) I wonder what happened to Malfoy. He was Pansy's date. Maybe he ditched her. I would ditch her. She looks like a truck. And she said I looked like a chipmunk.  
  
I sighed, watching all the happy couples dancing together, lost in their world of blissful dancing and dating and kissing and romantic-ing.  
  
So I made "romantic-ing" up. Sue me.  
  
Am I really that ugly? That much of a know-it-all? That un-approachable? Even Ron, one of my best friends, admitted that he wouldn't ask me out unless it was a last resort.  
  
I spotted Malfoy by the refreshment table. He seemed to be the only person not dancing, besides me. Mudblood Granger. The girl who was constantly with her nose in a book, hiding in the library. The insufferable know-it-all. It still stings a bit when I think about when Ron called me that.  
  
A couple just almost tripped over my feet. The girl glared at me, and I glared right back. It's not my fault you were so caught up in the fact that you're boyfriend's hands are on your ass that you didn't see my feet. Still, I brought my feet under my chair.  
  
Finally, the songs over. Now we can all just dance in a big group and have fun without worrying about who's dancing with who. Or who's not dancing. I like this song. I still listen to a lot of muggle music.   
  
"Keep rollin' rollin' rollin' rollin' rollin'..."  
  
Another slow song? Didn't they just play one? I got to my chair in record time. I feel so exposed. Everyone can see me. Why did I wear these stupid bright blue dress robes? How was I supposed to know everything was going to be white or red or green?  
  
"I'm goin' crazy crazy crazy just a thinkin' about you baby..."  
  
I liked this song. I'm not so sure now. It's always played at dances. Ironic, isn't it? I call them dances, yet I don't dance.  
  
Draco's sitting at a table across the room. Excuse me, Malfoy's sitting at a table across the room. I once made the mistake of calling him Draco in front of Ron. I think Ron nearly had a heart attack.  
  
"Hey heyyyyy...bye bye bye..."  
  
I hate this song so much. If you're going to break up with your girlfriend (why would you?) you should at least have the class to do it in private.   
  
I'm going to keep dancing anyway. Who says you have to love a song to dance to it?  
  
"May I have your attention please? May I have your attention please? Will the real Slim Shady please stand up? I repeat, will the real Slim Shady please stand up? I think we're gonna have a problem here..."  
  
Oh great. Here comes the twenty minute spiel of rap songs no ones heard of, with lyrics like "Get your freak on" and "Shake it" and "Wazzup my fly girls and homie-G dawgs?"  
  
Harry and Ron just went to sit down. Parvati and Padma are talking with two boys on the other side of the room. Probably Beuxbatons boys. Harry caught my eye and waved at me, trying to get me to sit down with them.  
  
Right. After ignoring me all night, you expect me to come and keep you company while your dates are flirting with other guys?  
  
I think not.  
  
I pretended I didn't see him and kept dancing. I was feeling rather bold, so I decided to go right in front of the DJ's and just dance like I didn't care I was alone. There were a few groups of people dancing up there in loose circles, so I decided to pretend I was with them.  
  
I just elbowed someone in the back. I turned to say sorry, and I found I had elbowed Draco. I decided to spook him a bit. I grinned and shouted "Sorry!"(since the music was so loud.) He surprised me by shrugging it off and continuing to dance, almost right across from me.  
  
Another slow song? Dang, this is getting annoying. I'm back in my chair already. Draco's sitting on this side of the room now. If I didn't know better, I'd say he's following me. Yeah right.  
  
I don't know what this song's called. Something about a guy, and he loves his girlfriend, and he misses her. Puh-leeze! If you loved her so much, why'd you break up with her in the first place? Serves you right, you idiot.  
  
It might be my imagination, but Draco's getting closer. Now he's sitting at the next table.   
  
This is so not fair! They're playing two slow songs in a row! I was about to go complain to the DJ, but when I realized what song it was, I just sat down, feeling even more sorry for myself as I started singing the words under my breath.  
  
"It's been six months, eight days, twelve hours since you went away..."  
  
I absolutely love this song. It was always played at the dances at my Muggle school.  
  
Is this how I'll always be? The pathetic ugly girl who sits through the slow songs, singing the words under her breath? The words she memorized because she spends her nights listening to CD's because she has no one to spend them with?   
  
It's almost the end of the dance. The fairies are glowing even brighter, and the lights are really low. It's beautiful. It would be perfect...if I had someone to share it with.  
  
The last song is playing. I don't particularly like the Backstreet Boys, but I like this song. It's okay.  
  
  
"Show me the meaning, of being lonely..."  
  
Show me the meaning? Ha. I am the meaning.  
  
"What's the matter, Granger?"  
  
I was shaken out of my self-pity by none other than Mr. Malfoy himself. He was sitting in a chair next to me.  
  
"Why do you think something's the matter, Malfoy?" I replied cooly. He wasn't the only one who could drawl like that.  
  
"Just that you've been moping around during all the slow songs, and the fact that you actually apologized to me." He replied, showing a rare grin. I was taken aback by this sudden show of humanistic behavior from him, but before I could reply, he stood and extended a hand to me.  
  
"What...?" I stuttered, at a loss for words for the first time.  
  
"It's called being asked to dance, Granger. I know it's a new concept for you, but..."  
  
"I know what you mean; I just wasn't sure you did." But I still took his hand. I can't believe I'm doing this, I thought.   
  
All thoughts left, though, as we walked out onto the dance floor. I had no idea what to do, and I know Draco didn't either, as he had sat out all the slow dances as well. Imitating the others, I put my arms around his neck, trying to keep a small distance between us. He placed his hands on my waist, a frightening experience for both of us, I'm sure, and we slowly turned in a circle, like the other couples around us.  
  
Pretty soon, I was gone. Totally gone. If Professor McGonagall had announced that I failed every single one of my exams, I doubt I would have batted an eye. So this is why people love to dance. It was amazing. I felt so peaceful, so happy, so...so...I can't even describe it. It was wonderful.  
  
Draco seemed to think so too. Forget trying to keep a small distance between us. His arms were wrapped around my waist, and I was resting my head on his shoulder. It didn't matter that he was Draco Malfoy at the moment. For one sparkling second, everything was perfectly wonderful.  
  
So wonderful, in fact, I didn't even notice Fred's shocked face as he danced past with Angelina. Or the fact that he whispered something to her, then headed off for Ron and Harry's table.  
  
I did notice, however, when Harry pulled me off Draco and Ron suddenly appeared in front of him.  
  
"Get your hands off her you lousy scumbag!" Ron shouted, causing almost everyone to look at us.  
  
"Ron!" I cried, my face red with embarrassment. "I was just dancing, Draco didn't do anything-"  
  
"Oh, so he's Draco now?" Ron said, with a look that just shouted contempt.  
  
"Calm down Weasly." Draco butted in. "I plead temporary insanity. I'm not going to steal precious little Hermione away from you."  
  
He glanced quickly at me and then walked away, towards Crabbe, Pansy, Millicent, and Goyle.   
  
Ron watched them go, and Harry said "Jeez Hermione, what were you thinking?"  
  
"I was thinking how nice it was to be noticed for a change." I muttered darkly. But I had no time to dwell on that. I needed to kill Fred.  
  
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Songs: (In order of appearance:)  
  
Rollin' by Limp Bizkit  
Crazy by K-Ci and Jo-Jo  
Bye Bye Bye by *NSYNC  
The Real Slim Shady by Eminem  
6,8,12 by Brian McKnight  
Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely by The Backstreet Boys 


	2. Seeing Stars

Disclaimer: Nothing's mine but the plot.  
  
A/N: I totally made up all the dream meanings things. So don't review and say "That doesn't mean that! K? Okay, tell me if this is better, worse, the same, abysmal, you get the idea. I hope this is better or at least the same. S:C) Love, Dragonessa Smith  
  
  
I really meant to find Fred and yell at him that night, but when we got back to the common room, it was so warm and I was so tired, I just crawled up the stairs and into my bed.  
  
I'll yell at him tomorrow, I thought, before closing the draperies and falling into a deep sleep.  
  
I had two dreams that night. The first was normal; the second made no sense at all.  
  
In the first, I dreamt about the dance. I played every single second of it inside my head, over and over. I woke up around one in the morning, feeling a bit disturbed. I got a drink of water and then fell back asleep.  
  
In the second, Fred was a pumpkin, and I was trapped inside. Draco had a saw that was pink and red, and tried to saw me out. When I was almost free, Fred The Pumpkin, who had turned into the world with Fred's head on it, rolled over and squished him. I tried to lift the pumpkin, but I couldn't. Then Draco and Harry appeared and helped me lift the pumpkin so I could save Draco.  
  
I woke up from the second dream feeling a bit dazed. Checking that no one else was up, I crept over to Parvati's bed. Opening the top drawer of her bed table, I looked through the countless tea leaves and fortune tellers until I came upon what I was looking for. As I made my way back to my bed, I clutched a small, leather-covered book with just one word on the cover: Dreams.  
  
As I told Harry and Ron countless times, I don't believe in all that Divination junk. But there was actual proof that supported the theory that dreams had some significance.   
  
I got a piece of parchment and a pen from my own bed table and started to write down everything I could remember from the dream. Then I made it into a chronologic list, starting with being stuck in Fred/Pumpkin. Then I split that into "key elements" as the book said, so I ended up with a list like this:  
  
Fred/Pumpkin  
Trapped.  
Draco  
Saw  
Pink and Red  
Squishing  
The world  
Not being able to lift the pumpkin  
Draco and Harry helping  
Finally saving him.  
  
  
I started to look up the "key elements" in the book. There was nothing specifically about Harry, Draco, or Fred, of course, but they did have "Friend, Enemy," and "Siblings."  
  
With "Siblings," there was just a bunch of junk on how siblings are the best relationships you can have, or something like that. It did have something useful. It said if you imagine a sibling as a protector, you might feel they are becoming too involved in your life. That's the truth. At first Fred and George, and all of Ron's other brothers, were just sort of, there, you know? Now their acting like I'm their little sister, telling me what to do and all that. Really, there is such a thing as too involved.  
  
Oh, this is helpful. "Being trapped somewhere in a dream means you feel trapped in a current situation, be it a relationship, job, or something else." Like I didn't know that. I don't need a stupid book to tell me that I think Fred wa-a-ay overstepped his boundaries at the dance. It's none of his business what I do, thank you very much.  
  
"Enemies: Dreaming of your enemy could mean you feel threatened, scared, or afraid. However, if your enemy saves you from whatever is threatening you, it might show that you think of him as more than an enemy." Excuse me, could you say that in English please? How do you think of someone as more than an enemy? An arch-enemy?   
  
"Saw: If you dreamt of a saw, you may want to break away from something that has been holding you back." Like a giant pumpkin?  
  
"Pink and Red: these colors traditionally signify love and passion."  
  
That was as far as I got before I became totally fed up. In anger, I hurled the book against the wall. There was a thud, a clunk, and before I knew what had happened, Lavender had switched on her lamp and was shouting about Peeves coming and throwing stuff at her.  
  
I ignored her. I didn't feel like dealing with her right now. Even though it was only 5:30 in the morning, I started to get ready for breakfast. There was no way I was going to sleep again today.  
  
At 5:45, I was already wide awake. I had just reached for the Great Hall's doorknob when the doors flew open. Professor Sinistra nearly ran me over. He was dragging Draco, Dennis Creevy, and Dean out of the Great Hall, shouting something about how ashamed he was, and that he was taking them to Dumbledore's office.  
  
As I entered, the Gryfindors (The ten or so that were up that early) started clapping. The Slytherins (who totaled five), on the other hand, were scowling at me so fiercely, I almost ran back up to my bed. But instead I sat (at the far end of the Gryffindor table), where Fred, George, Ron, Harry, Seamus, Colin, and Ginny were sitting, laughing their heads off.  
  
"What happened?" I asked, reaching for a slice of toast.  
  
"D-d-Draco was walking out of the Hall," Ginny gasped, between laughs. "When Dean went up to him and said, he said..." She dissolved into giggles, leaving me to poke Ron and ask again.  
  
"He said: 'What did you do to Hermione at the ball?' Then, Malfoy snapped back 'Nothing she didn't want.' Then Dean just landed this beautiful punch right on Malfoy's jaw. Then they just started brawling, and finally Prof. Sinistra, he was the only teacher here except for Flitwick, and he had fallen asleep against his coffee. Sinistra pulled Dean away from him, and was holding him with his hands behind his back, while Draco struggled up."  
  
George picked up the story from there. "When Draco had gotten up, he looked like he was gonna fall over again, but suddenly he just hit Dean right in the nose with a right hook, snapping his head to the side."  
  
"Slime-ball." Colin muttered. "Anyway, like, two seconds after that, Dennis jumped up and just hurled himself at Malfoy, yelling something about how you should fight fair or not fight at all. He somehow had latched himself onto Malfoy's back, and was clawing at his head. The dummy just kept spinning around, trying to tear Dennis off of him. Meanwhile, Dean broke free once more and landed a punch right in his stomach before some prefect hauled him away."  
  
"Sinistra almost got him off, but he suddenly just grabbed, and his fingers went up Malfoy's nose, and he just pulled up, and Malfoy was howling like a bat out of he...ck." Ginny said, careful not to swear in front of her brothers. "Just as you came in, Sinistra was hauling them all off to Dumbledore."  
  
"If there's any justice in the world, Malfoy's nose would stay like Dennis pulled it." Seamus said, a tad wistfully.  
  
"So that's why the Slytherins were about to kill me." I said, losing my appetite. I put down the half-eaten toast. I just realized we had Potions this afternoon. With Draco. And Dean. And Snape. And all the Slytherins and Gryffindors.  
  
Oh joy.  



	3. Falling Star

(WARNING: LONG YET SEMI-IMPORTANT A/N. IF YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT WHAT'S GOING ON IN MY LIFE, SKIP DOWN TO THE PARAGRAPH AFTER "I LOVE DANCING!!!!")  
  
A/N: I GOT ASKED TO DANCE! I DANCED! THREE TIMES! AND I ASKED SOMEONE TO DANCE! Okay, so it was my friend's ex and a friend of mine from elementary school who asked me, but so what? They asked me! And I danced! And I didn't step on their feet! (Except maybe once or twice, but hey. Nobody's perfect.)   
  
And then, get this: For the LAST song of the LAST dance, of our LAST year of middle school, I asked a guy to dance. So what if he's a friend of mine and already has a girlfriend? Who cares?   
  
And get this too: My friend's ex (We'll call him X.) asked me when we first got there, but I just sort of laughed, cause I half thought he was kidding, and half thought my friend who used to date him would be upset if I did. So, first slow song, I'm sitting on the bench w/my friends, and X walks over, grabs my hand, and actually pulls me onto the floor!   
  
And after the dance, when we were walking towards the parking lot for my mom to pick me up, this guy who's sorta my friend, but he's hecka popular (think tall football player who flirts with the teachers-type guy.), came up to me and said he had been looking for me the entire dance. I said he hadn't been looking properly, (A HP quote; think Stan Shupike talking about why Muggles can't see the Knight Bus.) But I wish he had found me! I love dancing!   
  
Okay, so you guys know, right now, the day after the dance, I'm making a vow: I will not sit out any slow song at any of the dances next year, unless I am injured, there is a crisis, or unless the song is "Crazy" by K-Ci and Jo-Jo. (Every time they play that song, me and two of my friends stand on the bleachers and wave our arms, trying to make the couples crack up.) But if somebody asks me to dance during that song, I don't think I'll say no.   
  
I LOVE DANCING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
Okay, enough about the dance, on with the fic. I seriously hope this doesn't turn out like one of those "Draco and Hermione instantly fall in love, and everyone doesn't mind." fics. They won't fall in love immediately, but they will fall in love. I promise!   
  
Love, Dragonessa "Dancing Queen" Smith  
  
  
  
  
"Ms. Granger? Ms. Granger! Ms. Granger, wake up!" Prof. McGonagall shouted at me.  
  
I snapped my head around. I felt a blush rise as the whole class stared at me.   
  
"Y-yes?" I said timidly. Great, the first time I let my mind wander, and she calls on me. I had been thinking about the dance, and my dreams, and what had happened at breakfast. Harry and Ron never pay attention, and they never get asked questions. It's just not fair.  
  
"Would you like to answer the question, or are you just going to continue to stare out the window?" I swear I saw a small smile tugging at the sides of her mouth. (A/N: Lot's of S's in that sentence. :C)  
  
I started to panic. I had no idea what the question was, how was I supposed to answer it?  
  
On the other side of the room, Neville coughed loudly and very fakely. While McGonagall looked at him, I quickly turned to Ron, who was sitting next to me. He shoved a piece of paper onto the edge of his desk. It said "Cats."  
  
As Prof. McGonagall turned back to me, she said again "Are you going to answer the question?"  
  
"Cats?" I said, crossing my fingers under the desk.  
  
"Cats? Cats? Ms. Granger, you believe that cats are a 16th century wizard group who rid London of banshees?" She asked incredulously.  
  
The whole class burst out in laughter. I shrunk down in my seat, burning red, glaring at Ron, who was cracking up.  
  
As soon as Prof. McGonagall's back was turned, I turned to Ron and punched his arm. He looked at me innocently and mouthed "What did I do?" then he and Harry silently cracked up.  
  
You see? This is why I feel like they don't appreciate me sometimes.  
  
"Does anyone know what the answer really is?" McGonagall asked. Glancing at me, she said, "And it is not cats. Yes Harry?"  
  
"The Banshee-Banners?"  
  
"That is correct Harry." She beamed at him.  
  
And then after class, they didn't know why I wouldn't talk with them.  
  
"Well, if you had been paying attention, none of this would have happened." Ron said. God, I bet he's been waiting to use that one on me for about, oh, since the moment he met me.  
  
"What were you thinking about anyway?" Harry asked.  
  
"Oh, I bet I know." Ron said, grinning. He coughed loudly and fakely, and it sounded a lot like "Draco!"  
  
I turned around and just about smacked him. "Ron, why don't you just get over it already? I wasn't thinking about Draco! It was one stupid dance almost a week ago!"  
  
He just goggled at me. I never shout.  
  
Suddenly Lavender and Parvati had appeared behind me.  
  
"You're just upset because she wouldn't dance with you, but she would dance with Draco." Lavender shot at him.  
  
"Yeah. Why don't you get over it? Hermione doesn't like you like that." Parvati said. Ron stared at her.  
  
"It's called rejection Ron." Lavender said loudly. "Get used to it. I have a feeling you'll be seeing a lot of it in the future."  
  
Turning bright red, he spun on his heels and dragged Harry down the corridor.   
  
As they turned the corner, Lavender said "What a jerk. I don't see why you put up with him Hermione."  
  
"Sometimes I don't know either. Thanks for backing me up there." I said.  
  
"No prob." Parvati said. "Even if we aren't, like, the best of friends, us girls still have to stick together, right?"  
  
"Yeah. I guess." I said.   
  
"See you around. We have to get to Divination." As they walked off, I couldn't help but smile. Sometimes it was nice to have friends like them.  
  
At lunch, Ron wasn't speaking to me. He made it a point to sit at the other end of the table with Fred and George. I didn't particularly mind. I was sitting with Parvati and Lavender for the first time since we had known each other. Besides, I wasn't going anywhere near Fred for the time being.   
  
Harry probably sensed the tension, as he scarfed down his lunch, announced he had Quidditch practice, and bolted.  
  
After lunch, we had Herbiology, which wasn't bad, except that Hannah Abbot and her Hufflepuff friends kept asking me questions about what it was like dancing with Draco, which sparked yet another arguement with Ron.  
  
"Dancing with Draco wasn't particularly exciting," I told them. "It was the dancing that was great. It's like your floating on clouds, and nothing else matters."   
  
Hannah sighed. "That's beautiful, Herm."  
  
"That's beautiful Herm. That's beautiful, Herm." I turned. Ron had been working at the table behind us with Harry and Justin Finch-Fletchly. He was mimicking Hannah in a high pitched voice. Justin was cracking up, and Harry was trying desperatly to keep from laughing.  
  
"Don't you feel bad," I said in a loud voice, pretending I was talking to Hannah and the others. "For those people who are so pathetic and upset by the fact that they can't get anyone to dance with them, that they have to try and make other people feel bad for having fun?"  
  
"Don't you hate it when you try to save your friend, do something nice for them, and all they do is get mad at you?" Ron "asked" Harry and Justin, just as loudly.   
  
"Save me?" I laughed bitterly. "Save me from what, having fun?"  
  
"You were dancing with Draco Malfoy!" Ron shouted, forgetting to pretend he wasn't talking to me. "Do you remember who Draco Malfoy is?"  
  
I whipped around and stared him right in the eye. If my glare were any colder, Ron's teeth would have chattered.  
  
"YES, I remember who Draco Malfoy is." I spat at him. Everyone had fallen silent, even Prof. Sprout. "He's the guy who asked me to dance. Yes, I know he's our worst enemy, which makes you even more pathetic, because it should have been you that asked me to dance!" My voice rose as I shouted at him. "But no, you were too much of a God-damned coward to ask me to dance one freaking time!"  
  
After I stopped shouting, there was a stunned silence, then all the girls started clapping. Ron glared at me, his hair paling in comparison to how red his face was.  
  
Prof. Sprout gave us both detention, weeding the plants in Greenhouse One.  



	4. Black Hole

A/N: This is sort of turning into fluff, but it's not a "all probs solved instantly" story. So if it's fluff, but non-fluff at the same time, what would it be? They should make a word for non-fluff fluff. NFF. I dunno. This is like the shortest A/N I ever wrote. Disclaimer: Plot is mine, nothing else. Hope you like it. (Wow, that's all! Short.)  
  
Love, Dragonessa "Short A/N finally!" Smith  
  
Black Hole  
  
  
Potions. As if this day hadn't been bad enough, whoever's up there controlling us decided, "Let's make her go to potions and see what happens."  
  
As I walked in, all the Slytherin's simultaniously turned their heads away from me. Except for Draco, who was sitting alone at a desk in the far corner. He almost smiled at me, but at the last second it changed into a sneer, almost exactly like the one Ron was giving me.  
  
I sat at one of the desks with Neville and started pulling out the ingredients for today's potion. I was on auto-pilot.   
  
"Hermione!" Neville hissed, grabbing my hand.  
  
"What?" I snapped, feeling confused and disoriented. Neville's voice hadn't helped much. I didn't know he knew how to hiss.  
  
"He said we weren't supposed to add the bat wings until it stops boiling...didn't he?" Neville looked frightened. Of course he did. It was the first time he had ever corrected anyone.   
  
I looked down at my hand, holding a bat wing, poised over the cauldron, which was bubbling heartily.  
  
The full realization of what had just happened hit me. Neville. Had corrected someone. Me. In potions. His worst class. Neville. Potions  
  
I have to get out of here.  
  
"Prof. Snape, may I go to the hospital wing? I'm not thinking straight." I'm not sure if he said yes or no. I picked up my bag and ran out the door.  
  
I headed for the hospital wing, even though I knew they didn't have anything that would help me.   
  
Correction: I stumbled in the general direction of the hospital wing, even though I knew they didn't have anything to fix Ron's small-minded attitude and my new-found inability to concentrate.  
  
Mdm. Pomfrey looked a bit skeptical when I came in without a note, but she told me to lie down anyway.   
  
Funny thing about school staff. No matter what a good kid says, they'll believe it. Like right now. I told Mdm. Pomfrey that I thought I was coming down with a cold, which was why I couldn't concentrate.  
  
It felt nice just laying there, not worrying about anything. Just letting the aspirin calm my mind...  
  
"Here comes the Longbottom special, one fifteen on the dot." Mdm. Pomfrey said to me.  
  
"Hmm?" I asked. I had almost been asleep.  
  
"Almost every time you have potions, Neville comes in, at exactly one fifteen or a little earlier. You'd think Snape would have figured it out by now. That boy is just no good at potions."  
  
"It might help if Snape wasn't breathing down his neck every day." I said, just as the door opened. I only caught sight of Neville, covered in boils again, before Mdm. Pomfrey pulled the curtains closed around me.  
  
"I'll be right back." She said, then bustled off to help Neville.   
  
Not two seconds later, I heard her shout "WHAT WAS HE THINKING!"  
  
Peeking through the curtains, I saw Neville and Goyle being ushered into beds on either side of me.   
  
I agreed with Mdm. Pomfrey. What was he thinking?  
  
I pulled back the curtain on Neville's side. "Hey." I said.  
  
"Hey." He said feebly.   
  
We sat talking for a while about what had happened (After I left, Snape put Neville and Goyle together), when suddenly he asked "Did you really slap Ron?"  
  
"Almost." I muttered. "Who told you that?"  
  
"Padma Patil. I heard her and Parvati talking in the hall."  
  
"No, she's probably thinking about when we were having a...dissagrement in the hall outside of Transfiguration."  
  
  
"So you didn't slap him?" I think Neville sounded just a bit hopeful.  
  
"No. Can you believe this is all over a stupid dance?"  
  
The curtain behind me swished, and Goyle's big head appeared.  
  
"You shouldn't have danced with him anyway." He said. "If you could have kept your hands to yourself, nothing would have happened."  
  
"Hey, he asked me to dance, thank you very much." I said angrily. "And no one was talking to you anyway, you big lump." I pulled the curtain shut so fast, I think I caught his nose.  
  
When I turned back to Neville, he was looking at me thoughtfully. "What?"  
  
"Huh? Oh, er, I was, um...Hermione, promise you won't get mad at me?" Neville looked, if possible, even more fearful than usual.  
  
"What?" I asked, trying to sound comforting. I sounded more like a bad Richard Simmons impersinator.   
  
"Well, I was just thinking...he's right. None of this would have happened if you hadn't danced with him." He said that very quickly, but it didn't matter. I was already out of bed, towering over Neville, who was cowering so far under his sheets, only his face above his nose was visible.  
  
"Is everyone in this school so pathetic that my social life is the only thing worth talking about?!?" I screamed.  
  
I grabbed my bag and stormed out. I was right by the door when I heard Goyle laughing.   
  
"Believe me, it's not." He said between laughs.  
  
I picked up one of Mdm. Pomfrey's ice packs and threw it as hard as I could at his head.  
  
As I explained to Mdm. Pomfrey later, I knew he'd have a huge bump afterwards, so I was actually doing him a favor by hitting him with the ice. I think the only reason I didn't get a detention is because she dislikes Slytherins any more than I do.  
  
Well, one in particular is gaining some points...  
  
I spent the rest of the period in Gryffindor tower, waiting for dinner.  



	5. Star Crossed

A/N: Okay, I haven't written for a while, so i decided to post these two chapters, even though it's 10:50 and i shouldn't be on the computer. I actually wrote this chapter before the last one, but then i remembered that i had said she had potions after lunch. Also, if you like this story, please read and review my other ones!  
  
Know what? I remember reading somewhere that people tend to read stuff about what's missing in their life. If you apply that to writing, people like to write about what's missing in their life. For me, that would probably explain why I write mostly romance stories. I just went over all the stories i've written and -- out of ten are romance.  
  
I know this'll probably sound shallow, but i really want like, a boyfriend, or even a guy friend who i can invite over to watch a movie or just hang out. Example: I am perhaps the worlds biggest scardy-cat. me and a few friends watched scream 1,2,and 3 a few weeks ago. i almost broke my friend's hand. i was so scared, i was all curled up and holding onto her hand, and almost jumping into her lap at every scary part. later, at another "gathering", we were watching sleepy hollow, and i was doing like the same thing, and my friend said "you need to get a boyfriend and watch scary movies with him."  
  
I dunno, somehow i got stereotyped as the anti-romance funny girl. but i'm probably the biggest romantic out of all my friends.  
  
Okay, that had nothing to do with the story. Disclaimer: Nothings mine but plot. Enjoy. Love, Dragonessa Smith  
  
  
  
  
Star Crossed  
  
Prof. Sprout and Prof. Sinistra met us in the Great Hall for detention. I still wasn't talking to Ron. Which was probably a good thing, since he wasn't talking to me either.  
  
I was wondering what Sinistra was doing there when I heard a noise from the stairs.   
  
You ever hear that Alanis Morrisette song, "Ironic?" It's about how all these bad things happen after something good, exactly the opposite of what you thought would happen? Rain on your wedding day. Free ride when you already paid. Good advice that you just can't take. And who would've thought, it figures? Yada yada yada.  
  
Well, that could have been used to describe my mood, except instead of from good to bad, it went from bad to worse.  
  
Dean and Dennis were walking down the stairs. This meant three things to me:  
  
1. That explained Sinistra's appearance.  
  
2. They probably would be joining me and Ron.  
  
3. That meant Draco would too.  
  
I have to admit, I was slightly excited at the thought of being with Draco. I somehow convinced myself that it was just because I knew things would be tense with the four guys.  
  
I heard someone coming up the steps from the dungeons. Everyone turned and watched as Draco and Blaise Zabini walked up the steps.  
  
Forgetting we weren't speaking, I whispered to Ron, "What is she doing here?"  
  
"I dunno." he whispered back.  
  
When they reached the group, Prof. Sinistra started talking.  
  
"Ahem," He said. "As you all know, you're here in detention for various reasons. Prof. Sprout and myself both have reasons why we would have preferred that you serve these detentions on different nights."  
  
"However," Sprout started. "Filch has stubbornly refused to have three groups of detention on different nights. Therefore, two of you will be working in Greenhouse one, two, and three."  
  
Sinistra took over again. "We've spent a lot of time trying to figure this out, so bear with us, and please move appropriately." He took a deep breath, like he was trying to remember a lot.   
  
  
"We didn't want the two Slytherins together."  
  
Draco and Blaise took a step away from each other.  
  
"We didn't want Draco to work with any of the Gryffindor boys in his year."  
  
The boys both stepped away from Draco. Dennis and I stood on his other side.  
  
"We didn't want Dennis to work with one of the older boys."  
  
Dennis moved over towards Blaise. She looked down at him in disgust.  
  
"We thought Ron wouldn't want to work with Hermione, or Dean with Draco."  
  
Ron and Dean stood next to each other. Which left me with Draco.  
  
I don't know who looked angriest out of all of us.  
  
"Alright, Hermione and Draco, you're in Greenhouse one. Blaise, Dennis, you're in Greenhouse two. And Ron and Dean, Greenhouse three." He finished, clapping his hands together.  
  
"And remember, you're weeding only." Sprout said. "And this will be a three hour detention, so don't try to escape before the time's up. Filch will be watching all the greenhouses, and he will let you out when the time is up."  
  
"Fat chance." Dean muttered.  
  
It was unearthly quiet as we headed for the Greenhouses. I don't think anyone was happy with this arrangement.  
  
As Draco and I stepped into the Greenhouse, I felt relieved. It was warm in here, as opposed to the freezing cold of outside. Sinistra muttered Aromohola, locking us in.  
  
We worked in silence for almost two hours. Then Draco stood up, dusted off his hands, and turned to me.  
  
"Was it really as bad as everyone says you said it was?"  
  
It took me a moment to realize what he was asking. The dance. Was it as bad as I said it had been.   
  
"No." I said slowly, standing up and dusting my hands off to. "The dance was actually rather nice." The term "Mind-blowing ecstacy" comes to mind. "I guess I was just saying that because, well, it was you. And me." And for some reason everyone gets on my case if I try to have a little fun.  
  
"So it wasn't because I'm a lousy dancer?" He asked, looking almost relieved.  
  
"You're a really good dancer, what are you talking about?" About here I started having internal trouble.   
  
My brain couldn't believe I was saying this to Draco. It was telling me to just start weeding again, and stay away from Draco.   
  
My heart was saying to stick to this, it's better than weeding.  
  
He raised one eyebrow. "Am I hearing this right? You're complimenting me?"  
  
"Well, yeah, I guess." Damn, I hate it when I say stuff like that.   
  
"Well, would you, um, like to give it another go then? Since it was so good?" He asked, carefully avoiding my eyes. "I doubt Weasley would break us up this time, and I need the practice."  
  
My tongue was suddenly too thick. "Sure." I almost whispered, trying to sound like this happened all the time. Yeah right.  
  
He put his arms around my waist again. I was glad I was wearing my long sleeved robes so he couldn't see how that simple move made goose bumps appear all along my arms.  
  
Hello? My brain shouted. Anyone home? This is Draco Malfoy! You should not be having this reaction to Draco. You should be throwing up at the thought of him touching you!  
  
Hello? My heart shouted back. This is Draco Malfoy! He is a boy. You would have this reaction even if it were Ron who were touching you this way.  
  
Somehow I doubted that, but oh well.  
  
It was just like before, except with no music. I didn't care. I was too far gone. Again. And this time there was no Fred, no Ron, no Harry. Just the two of us.  
  
Suddenly Draco yanked on my arm, pulling me to his other side.  
  
"What the-" I stopped in mid-sentence as what looked like a huge Venus Fly Trap, except with bigger teeth, chomped down on the air where I had been dancing.   
  
"That would've hurt." I dead panned.  
  
"Are you okay?" Draco asked as we started dancing again.  
  
I almost laughed. "You know, you're not as bad as you think you are." I said. My brain was panicking. What was I saying? It sounds like I'm flirting! With Draco!  
  
"You know, neither are you." He said, smiling. My heart told my brain to shut up and just enjoy this for a moment.  
  
We danced for another second, then he dipped me. His face was barely an inch from mine. We froze. I could see every little detail of his face. I could feel his breath on my face. I could see how his lips moved slightly when he breathed.   
  
His lips...  
  
My heart kicked my brain out of my head.  
  
We came closer, closer, closer still. Half an inch, quarter of an inch, a space so small it couldn't be measured...  
  
Our lips touched for exactly one tenth of a second.  
  
Then the door started to open.  
  
He dropped me on the ground and pounced for the nearest planter box. I rolled over and started weeding a potted plant.  
  
"Okay, kids." Filch said. "Time's up. Get out of here."  
  
"Finally." Draco said, trying to sound relieved. I was happy to detect a bit of tightness in his voice, because that meant it wasn't just my head that felt like it would explode.  
  
We didn't look at each other as we walked back up to the castle. Luckily, no one else was talking either.  



	6. Solar Flare

Solar Flares  
  
  
A/N: To quote Little Vicky from the Simpsons, "I am ever so pissed!"   
  
Nice opener, eh? Well, let me explain that.  
  
Today was the first dance of my freshman year of high school. It was out in the courtyard, it was nice, kinda cold, but only if you were away from the crowds. I danced twice, yeah, I know everyone was dying to hear that. Once w/a sort of friend of mine, and the other time with the guy I asked to dance at the last dance. (If you don't get what I'm talking about, see the A/N on the third(?) I think chapter.)   
  
Well. Anyway, we had barely danced for five seconds when these three girls show up, giggling and skinny and wearing Care-frickin-Bear shirts, acting all flirty, going "Oh, Jake (fake name to protect the jerk's privacy) remember us?" I half expected them to start talking baby talk.   
  
Well, any guy (I think. Or maybe my expectations are too high) would say "Hi, yeah, I'm kinda in the middle of something, can I talk after the dance?" But no, not Jake. He stops dancing to talk w/his "old friends."   
  
Well, I'm not the type of girl to just stand there and wait for him to start paying attention to me again. I walked over to my friends. Then one of the Barbie dolls comes over and says "Oh, no, you were dancing with him, finish dancing with him, sorry, keep dancing with him." So I get dragged back there, Jake puts his hands on my waist, I put my hands around his neck, and he's STILL talking with the three girls.   
  
THEN he lets go and hugs them all when they finally go away. Then they all decide to hug me. I mean, I don't even know these girls, and at the moment, I'm really pissed at them. But I smile, and I'm polite, cause that's basically the way I am, but then they stay and talk more and finally they go away, but guess what? The songs almost over anyway! Gee, ain't life grand?   
  
And when it did end, he did what he did at the last dance too: Barely waiting for the music to stop, he drops his arms and practically runs away from me, w/o even a backwards glance. I am sooo pissed. Sorry, that's like my new word-of-the-day. Watch out, or in this chapter, you might find Hermione being "sooo pissed."  
  
Note to self: Never dance with Jake again. Or better yet, I'll say "Sorry, but I already promised this dance to ________ (fill in the name of someone I'd never dance with, and who Jake knows I'd never dance with.)" Yeah right. I should have just grabbed the first guy I saw when I walked back to my friends and started dancing w/him. He probably would have paid more attention to me. (Or any at all, which would still be more than Jake does)  
  
Okay, back to stuff that actually matters. I know this is my first post in a long time, but with ff.net being down, and my laptop in the shop (my sister stepped on it. Cracked the screen.) And school starting again, I'm not sure if I'll have time to write again anytime soon. I'm sorry!   
  
But just you wait: The first day a big project is assigned in one of my classes, you'll probably get a chapter or two, cause I have this bad habit of procrastinating, and somehow my teachers and parents somehow got it into their heads that school is more important than computer stuff. Like chatting or writing fanfiction. Adults. **Shakes head disappointedly.** Anyway, here we go, on with the show!  
  
Dragonessa "Working Class White Trash Punk Ass" Smith (Sorry, they've been playing ads for the movie "Rock Star" all week, and those are part of the song lyrics I heard, except for the punk ass part.)  
  
  
Solar Flares  
  
"You what?!?" Ginny nearly screamed. It was almost two in the morning, and we were the only ones left in the common room. I had to drag her out of her bed, but now she seemed totally awake.  
  
"Quiet Ginny!" I hissed, looking around to make sure we were truly alone.   
  
"I can't believe you kissed Draco Malfoy." She said incredulously.  
  
"Ginny!" I snapped. "Why don't you say it louder? I don't think Hagrid or Professor Trelawney heard you!"  
  
"Sorry." She flinched. "It's just kinda a shock, you know?" She twirled a piece of hair around her finger. "It's like if I kissed Cedric Diggory. The twins would kill me."  
  
"Yeah, well, Cedric's got Cho. Draco is alive and single and barely 100 yards away from us at this very moment." I couldn't believe what I was saying. It was so cold, so callous, so...Draco-like.  
  
But he isn't always like that. He can be nice and funny and kind and-  
  
I mentally slapped myself.  
  
"Ginny, what am I going to do?"   
  
"Okay, my bet is that he isn't exactly rushing to tell the Slytherins all about it. So I say don't tell anyone what you told me, and if anyone asks you about it, deny, deny, deny. Besides, more people are gonna believe you instead of him. You always tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."  
  
I lay awake for most of the night after that. I couldn't sleep. Because I knew I hadn't told Ginny the whole truth. I had left out one major detail about the kiss.  
  
I liked it.  
  
  
The next day at breakfast, I sat with Harry and Ron. Ron seemed to have forgotten about our fight, and was happily complaining about all the homework Trelawney had given him while trying to finish reading the section that had been assigned.  
  
"And, you know what Herm? She didn't give us the pages we're supposed to read until yesterday, then expects us to remember enough to pass the test she's giving us today." Ron said, spraying toast crumbs on my robe.  
  
"It's easier if you read the pages the day they're assigned," Parvati said in a cool voice from her place two seats down. "Not the day they're due while trying to eat breakfast."  
  
"Yeah, besides I thought it was Hermione's job to read during every meal." Lavender said. She and Parvati burst into giggles.  
  
"Yeah, well, at least she reads stuff other than "Teen Witch Weekly." Ron shot back.  
  
"Hey!" I piped up. "They read more than that."  
  
"Unfogging the Future doesn't count."  
  
"Hey, all this arguing can't be good for the digestion." Harry intervened. "Let's maybe wait until lunch or so to start the fighting?"  
  
Parvati glared at him for a few seconds, then turned her back to us and started talking to Lavender about something. Ron was already reading again. Harry looked at me hopelessly and began eating his scrambled eggs.  
  
I started looking around the Great Hall. I had finished my breakfast and my homework, so now I was bored out of my mind.  
  
I had been staring into space, or so I thought, when Ron's voice cut through my daze.  
  
"Staring at lover-boy, are you?"  
  
I blinked, and suddenly became very conscious to where I had been staring. At the back of a certain person's blond head.  
  
"Shut up Ron." I said, my face turning red. "I didn't even realize I had been looking at him."  
  
"So that's why your face is such a nice scarlet color?" Seamus said, sitting down next to me and grabbing a plate.  
  
"Would everyone please just get off my case already?" I said, looking around the whole table, from Neville to George. "It was just a stupid dance. Get a life and talk about something else."  
  
"But this is so much more interesting than what we do." Fred said, trying to look innocent and failing miserably. "We wouldn't have anything to talk about."  
  
"How about we talk about what you and Angelina did when I saw you two duck into one of the empty classrooms last week?" I snapped at him.  
  
The smile fell right off his face.  
  
"What?" He said, looking shocked.  
  
"What?" George, Ron, and Ginny said, looking eager.  
  
"What?!?" Angelina cried from the end of the table.  
  
During the argument that followed, no one noticed me get up and start walking towards Prof. McGonagall's classroom.  
  
Also, no one noticed Draco get up and follow me out.  
  
I was halfway there when he grabbed my arm and pulled me into the nearest room, namely, a broom closet.  
  
"What the-" I started to say, but he clapped a hand over my mouth. I grabbed my wand and pointed right between his eyes.   
  
He uncovered my mouth, but said "Just stay quiet, okay? We need to talk."  
  
"No, we don't." I reached behind me and tried to find the doorknob. I did not want to have this conversation now.  
  
"Aromohola." He pointed his wand at the door. "You know what we need to talk about. Like it or not, we did kiss in that Greenhouse, and we need to talk about what that was."  
  
"Okay, Draco, we do not need to talk about that kiss." I said, rushing on before he could get another sentence out. "We can pretend it didn't happen. We'll never speak of it again. We'll go back to hating each other, and at the next dance, I'll ask Ron and Harry to dance, and everyone will forget, and we'll all be one big happy family-"  
  
What happened next was totally uncalled for, unexplainably scary, and undeniably amazing.  
  
Draco kissed me again.  
  
And I'm just going to get this out of the way now: Much deeper. Much more passion. And oh yeah: Much more tongue.  
  
Finally he broke the kiss. I stood there stunned, limp in his arms. He looked down at me.  
  
"You might be able to forget that tiny kiss in the Greenhouse, but I know you won't be able to forget that so easily."  
  
Damn. 


	7. Drops Of Jupiter

A/N: I'M BACK! W/A WHOLE CHAPTER! Okay, I won't make this too long. Woo-hoo! On w/the chapter! I love hockey! Friedrich's an ASS!!!  
  
George acts very OOC, but I wanted to show him as being serious, w/o Fred, w/o having romantic intentions. I don't think it came across very well.  
  
PS: Minor plot-hole-I'm not sure Hermione's learned about the kitchens by now, but oh well.  
  
  
  
Drops of Jupiter  
  
I avoided pretty much everyone for the rest of the day. I told McGonagall that I felt sick again, and then wandered the halls looking for somewhere to go. I couldn't go to the library, because I knew that would be the first place anyone would come to look for me. I couldn't go to the common room, because that would be the second place. Finally, I headed for a place I hadn't been for a while.  
  
"Hello, miss, can I be getting you anything? Tea, cakes, anything?" I was mobbed by house-elves as I set foot in the kitchens.   
  
"No, not today, I'd like to be left alone for a while, thank you though." I said, carefully wading through the small green mass towards the fire.  
  
I sat down in front of it and brought my knees to my chest and stared into the fire. I felt so depressed, and I wasn't exactly sure why.  
  
I was so wrapped up in my thoughts, I didn't see him until he practically crashed into me.  
  
"Why, Ms. Granger! Whatever are you doing here?" A high falsetto cut through the clatter of the house elves. I looked up and saw the one person I really, really didn't want to see.  
  
"Hullo Fred." I said sullenly. I looked back at the fire, hoping he'd take the hint. Of course, he didn't.   
  
"I'm George. So what's the matter?" He asked, settling down next to me. "You can always tell us apart." He was chewing on a carrot, and offered me some.   
  
"No thanks, I might choke on it." I said for no particular reason.  
  
"Real ray of sunshine you are." He looked at me again. "Seriously, what's wrong?"   
  
"Everything." I stood up and turned for the door.  
  
He caught my arm, looking serious for once. "So tell me about it."  
  
"I don't feel like talking." I said, wrenching my arm out of his grasp.   
  
We stood there in silence for a while, staring at each other.   
  
"Well then," George asked. "What do you feel like doing?"  
  
"Crying." I sobbed, throwing myself against him. He dropped the carrot and steadied himself before we both went tumbling into the fire.   
  
I waited for the "Don't cry, Hermione." "Smart girls don't cry." A stupid joke or something about how I won't be able to see my 100%'s if I'm crying.  
  
He didn't say anything.  
  
He just held me.  
  
And that's just what I needed.  
  
When I finally stopped crying, or at least reduced it to the occasional sniffle, he sat me down near the fire and said, "Do you want to tell me about it, or do you just want to sit here some more?"  
  
"No, I want to talk."  
  
Half an hour later, I finished with "And I think I'm in love with him, and you're the only one who knows."  
  
George looked slightly jaded. Whatever he was expecting, this hadn't been it.  
  
I looked at him impatiently. "Well?"  
  
He sighed, looking at the fire, and asked, "What's the world to do when the level-headed go crazy?"  
  
I smacked him upside the head. "I'm serious."  
  
George looked at me. "So this whole thing started because Harry and Ron ignored you at the Yule Ball?"  
  
I nodded.  
  
"That's it, I'm signing them up for charm school." He sighed, pushing hair out of his eyes. When I gave him a dirty look, he shrugged. "Look, Hermione, what do you want me to say? I'm still processing the information. You should have talked to Fred, at least he's had romantic experience."  
  
"I don't want relationship help!" I screamed. "I want to know how to fix this so I can go back to being level headed! Before all this I would never have screamed at you in the kitchens! I wouldn't have told you any of this before! And now suddenly I'm spilling my guts to the guy who's twin fouled things up in the first place! You'll probably go tell him now, and he'll find it so amusing he'll have to tell Ron, Ron'll tell Harry, everyone else will find out from one of you, it'll be all over the school, and there will be a whole big mess and it'll all be Fred's fault! If he would've just let us dance!" Whew. That felt good.  
  
The house-elves were frozen, staring at me.   
  
George sat there patiently, watching me. "Are you finished?"  
  
"And exhausted." I swayed precariously. He caught me in his arms before I fell.  
  
"Look, Hermione," George said. "The best advice I can give you, is come clean. It's like pulling a band-aid off. It only hurts for a second."  
  
"Unless you pull it off too early, then you get an infection, which hurts a lot more than the band-aid ever did."  
  
"Well, sometimes the infection sounds worse than it is."  
  
"Sometimes all you needed to do was put some neosporin on it in the first place."  
  
"Are we still talking metaphorically?"  
  
"I'm not sure. Can you take me to Gryffindor tower? I'm tired."  
  
(I fell asleep on the way there, so this next part is told by George.)  
  
She was asleep before we even got out of the kitchens. I was amazed. I'd seen her go days without sleep studying for final exams, but suddenly she's falling asleep standing up.  
  
So I did the only thing I could.  
  
I picked her up princess style and headed for Gryffindor tower.   
  
It never seemed like such a long way before, but suddenly I've gained a hundred-something pounds, so that does make it slightly harder.  
  
Staircases were the hardest. Halfway up the third one, I was so exhausted, I sat down right in the middle of it, still holding her.   
  
I looked down at her. More specifically, her lips. They had touched Draco Malfoy's. Twice. Once voulintarily.   
  
Creepy.  
  
I once heard mum and dad talking, about Ginny's crush on Harry. Dad said "I don't understand it. The boy's not even that handsome." and then mum said, "Love is blind to all those not in it."  
  
I think that's what's going on here. There must be something more to Malfoy that Hermione sees but no one else in their right mind does. Or more specifically, she's going to see.  
  
Uh-oh, I hear voices.  
  
I tried to stand up as quickly as possible without waking Hermione. Quickly, I ducked behind a suit of armor, trying to become as small as I could.  
  
"...and I swear, I saw him pull her into a broom closet."  
  
Pansy Parkinson. The amazing dog-girl. Who's she talking about now?  
  
"That's nothing. Blaise reckons she saw them dancing, then he kissed her in the Greenhouse during detention, only it was really cold that night, but hot in the greenhouses, so the windows were all fogged up."  
  
Milicent Bullstrode. Damn her. And damn Blaise, whichever one she was.   
  
"Like he would ever go near that buck toothed frizzy haired book worm."  
  
I clenched my teeth to keep from shouting out something about their looks.  
  
They walked on, talking about Fred and Angelina now. God, don't those stupid girls have anything on their minds but Gryffindor gossip?  
  
Somehow I made it all the way back to Gryffindor tower without stopping again.   
  
"Password?" The fat lady asked.  
  
"Uh...sugar quills."  
  
"Sorry, sweetie, they changed it a few minutes ago."  
  
"Damn!" Why does this always happen to me?  
  
Suddenly the portrait swung open. It was Fred.  
  
"George! Where have you been? I was looking all..." He trailed off as he noticed Hermione. Then he grinned at me. "What have you two been doing all afternoon?"  
  
"Shut up and help me get her into bed." I snapped.  
  
"And will you be joining her after that?" He asked innocently. Really, he may be my twin, but sometimes I just want to kill him.  
  
"Just grab her feet."  
  
I refused to say another word until Hermione was safely tucked into her bed. Luckily, the common room and her dorm was empty, so no one else bothered us.  
  
"So? What were you two doing all afternoon?"  
  
(I woke up around here.)  
  
"So, what were you two doing all afternoon?" Fred asked.  
  
"None of your business." George snapped.  
  
It took me a minute to figure out what they were talking about. I lay still, hoping they wouldn't realize I was awake.  
  
"My, my, seems someone's a little sensitive about his new girlfriend." I could just hear Fred grinning.  
  
"Look, Fred, I'm begging you, lay off. Nothing's going on between me and Hermione."  
  
The door closed before I could hear Fred's reply. I hope for once he listens and forgets about this. The last thing I need right now is a rumor about me and George being together.  
  
Just as I was falling asleep again, Parvati and Lavender burst into the room and jumped on my bed.  
  
"Hermione, Hermione!" Parvati screeched in my ear. "Are you really going out with George?"  
  
Any lawyers out there, I've got a question. Is there such a thing as justifiable murder?  
  
  
  
  
A/N: You didn't think I was going to make things easy for Hermione, did you? '^_^' BTW, totally off-topic: Does anyone else think fondling is a really weird word? 


	8. Nebula

A/N: How's this for a cure for writers block-We've been studying astronomy all week in science (think new chapter titles) and there was a dance on Friday. Plus, there was lots of drama at the dance. My friend likes a friend but she also likes another friend but the first friend is a huge flirt and the second cares more about his Magic cards. Anywho...  
  
  
Nebula (Fuzzy blotch of dust and stuff, where stars are born.)  
  
I woke up the next morning at around four. I hate it when that happens. There was nothing to do, and I was the kind of person where, once I'm up, I'm up. I can't stay in bed all day.  
  
I got dressed and headed down the stairs, wondering if the fire would be going this early. But instead of sitting by the fire, which, incidently, was going, I headed out the portrait hole.  
  
The fat lady didn't say anything, she just snored at me.   
  
I wandered the halls, which seemed to have become a habit of mine. Subconsciously, I was heading for the kitchens again.  
  
I contemplated skipping classes for the day, and staying here. It was all warm and nice, and the chatter of the house elves was pretty calming.  
  
I started feeling tired again, even though I had gotten lots of sleep the night before (Once Parvati and Lavender shut up.).   
  
I'll just rest my eyes for a bit, I thought. (A/N: Famous last words)  
  
The next thing I knew, a house elf was poking me with a big spoon.  
  
"Sorry to be waking you out of sleep, ma'am." She said, "But we is needing to be able to get the dinner ready now."  
  
Dinner? Oh god, I don't think I can get away with missing another day of school.  
  
Wait a minute, I've missed like, two days of school and all I'm worried about is getting in trouble?  
  
"What has he done to me?!?" I cried, holding my head.  
  
"Nothing you haven't done to him."   
  
I whirled around. George was standing in the portrait hole, one foot in, one foot out.  
  
"What are you doing here?" I cried.   
  
"Looking for you. And since I've done that, come with me."  
  
"Where?" He didn't answer, but I followed him anyway.   
  
He led me down a corridor, up a flight of stairs, down another corridor, down a flight of stairs, and finally into a dark room.  
  
"George, where are we going? What's the matter? George!" Suddenly I recognized where we were. Come to think of it, this was another place I hadn't been in a while. "George, why are we in the trophy room?"  
  
In response, he whistled. I stood there, dumbfounded, as someone else whistled back from a dark corner of the room.  
  
George hurried me towards the corner, where a mirror hung. Wait a minute, that wasn't a mirror...  
  
"Fred?"   
  
"Hermione, you can't ever ask me for anything ever again, okay? Not even a wedding present." He grinned sardonically at me from behind a huge painting, which concealed another room. "The only reason I'm here is because George made me feel guilty about spreading a rumor about you and him-"  
  
I turned angrily on George. "You told him! You ass, you told him!" I started beating his chest with my fists. I could tell I wasn't doing any real damage, because George rolled his eyes at me.  
  
"Hermione, calm down." George said, grabbing my fists and holding them still. "I only told him because I needed some help..."  
  
"Some help? Some help! Since when do you need help ruining other people's lives?!?" I screamed at him.  
  
"Since George insisted we had to risk expulsion to try and make you happy." Fred blurted out.  
  
I went still. "Oh, God, what did you two do?"  
  
In response, George pushed me into the room.   
  
A light flickered on above us, illuminating the small room and it's contents.  
  
Which included one chair, several pieces of rope, a piece of masking tape, and, oh yeah, Draco right in the middle of it all.  
  
  
  
  
A/N: Okay, I know, short, but check out down there, I posted another chapter too! Read on! 


	9. Dark Side of the Moon

A/N: Yes, that was fluffy and ooc, but also very like them in some ways. George needs help, turns to Fred. They screw things up immensely by reveling Hermione and Draco's growing love for each other before either one is ready to admit it. And plus, they know about secret rooms that we've never noticed before! :CD Okay, enough. Bai!  
  
PS: Ditz alert! I almost had Krum ask Hermione to the Yule ball in this chapter. Yes, I am blonde. And I do intend to warp time a bit, so there are a few minor plot-holes. But it's all good.  
  
PPS: If anyone still believes that their parents will be okay with their grades "as long as you do your best," I want them to know that really means "As long as it's above a B." and parents cannot be trusted. Ever.  
  
  
  
  
Dark Side Of The Moon  
  
  
"You guys have really out-done yourselves this time." I growled, clenching my fists at my side.   
  
"Yeah, I know." Fred said happily.  
  
I turned towards him abruptly. "Untie him right now!" I screamed.  
  
He stepped back, but then hurried forward and started untying Draco.  
  
"Hermione, what is the problem here?" George cried, holding his head with both hands. "You obviously like him, I'm pretty sure he likes you, since we found him skulking around the library muttering your name, and oh yeah, the fact that he kissed you!"   
  
"The problem? The problem is you two always thinking you know what's best for people and doing it before you even think about it!"  
  
They looked confused. Who wouldn't be? Draco was finally free, but for once, he was keeping his mouth shut.  
  
"Why don't you two stop trying to act like you want to help me and be serious and go drop a dungbomb in someone's pants?"  
  
Oh great, now George and Fred are giving me those kicked-puppy eyes. I sighed. "Just leave me alone, okay? Just, leave me alone."  
  
With that I walked out of the room, then ran for the common room, not even bothering to notice Draco had followed me out but sped off towards the dungeons.  
  
Okay, I thought, as I gave the password to the Fat Lady. No more drama. I shouldn't be afraid of Draco, so I'm not going to hide in the kitchens or anything. I'm going to bed at 10:00 tonight, and I'm not going to miss any more classes. I will act just like I always have to Fred and George. If anyone asks what happened, I'll tell them I was practicing charms, and my wand slipped, and a confounding charm hit my mirror and rebounded at me.  
  
Yeah, if only.   
  
I looked at the clock in the common room. 7:38. I could probably still get some dinner. I hadn't eaten in a while.  
  
I went down to the common room and ate some leftovers and listened to Viktor Krum talking about Quidditch to a group of girls.   
  
Oh, the Tri-Wizard Tournament. I'd forgotten all about it.  
  
  
  
Apparently Harry and Ron haven't.  
  
"Come on, Hermione, we've got to go to the library." Ron whined, pulling on my arm as I finished my soup.  
  
"Hey, that's my line." I joked wearily, hoping to finish my bread, but when Harry started pulling, I got up and went with them.  
  
I was only half-listening as they discussed strategies for surviving underwater. I was flipping pages randomly, trying to work out a schedule to finish all the homework I had missed. All of my teachers had taken my confounding story rather well, except Snape, who said he saw the Weasley twins carrying me. I told him I had been confounded so bad I didn't recall that. His only response to that was some muttered remark about all brains but no common sense.  
  
"That looks disgusting Hermione." Ron said, leaning over and looking at what page I was on.  
  
I looked down. "Oh, this is no use." I said, snapping shut 'Weird Wizarding Dilemas' as though I had actually been searching. "Who on earth wants to make their nose hair grow in ringlets?"  
  
"I wouldn't mind." Said Fred Weasley's voice. "Be a talking point, wouldn't it?"  
  
Harry, Ron aid I looked up. Fred and George had just emerged from behind some bookshelves.  
  
"What're you two doing here?" Ron asked. Fred was looking at me uncertainly behind him. I looked back at Harry.   
  
"Looking for you," said George. "McGonagall wants you, Ron. And you, Hermione."  
  
I paled considerably. If this was another one of their plans...  
  
"Why?" I asked.   
  
"Dunno...she was looking a bit grim though." said Fred.  
  
"We're supposed to take you down to her office." Said George.  
  
I told Harry bye, and we started walking towards her office.   
  
As we were walking, George and I seemed to be slowing down, until Fred and Ron were halfway up the hall and out of earshot.  
  
"I just wanted to apologize for yesterday." George started. "I don't understand you guys. You told me yourself you fancy him, and he just happens to be hanging around your favorite haunt, muttering your name right after he kissed you. It seems like it would be clear to most anyone that you-"  
  
"I told you, leave me alone." I snapped, starting to speed up.  
  
He grabbed my arm. "Come on, I'm trying to apologize here-"   
  
"You're not doing a very good job." I sneered.   
  
He just stared at me, then sighed hopelessly. "We'd better hurry up, or people are going to start believing Fred's rumor." 


	10. Neptune

Neptune  
  
  
A/N: I am so in love with WhiteLily, she reviewed EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER! Go her! Read some of her stories, they're great!  
  
They're also the reason this chapter is out so fast. Positive reviews help! Especially when they say stuff other than "Write more soon!" (But I still love all my reviews and reviewers! Please keep reviewing!) It's also long because I found some old random bits and pieces I had written before, and one or two fit.  
  
Poetic License Alert-Eloise Midgen is filling in for prefect Penelope Clearwater, who would have graduated with Percy the year before the Tri-Wizard tournament. But let's pretend Percy was into younger women, shall we? ;C)  
  
Rated OOC for minor and major Out-Of-Characterness. Dedicated to whoever wanted them to hook up ASAP.   
  
And I don't know why, but I'm obsessed with the idea of Hermione kicking butt, verbally and physically.  
  
  
Back in my room. It seems like only a few minutes ago, Dumbledore was explaining what was going to happen, then, the next thing I know, Krum's dragging me ashore, and we're both soaking wet.   
  
Not a pleasant experience to wake up to, especially when he's half-shark.  
  
He kept buzzing around me like a fly once we were back on land, grabbing me towels, asking if I was okay, that type of thing. I wished I had a huge fly swatter.  
  
The scariest part was, I couldn't stop thinking that if I were dating him, it would help stop the whole Draco thing. But I threw that idea out of my head. I don't need someone else to stop this.  
  
Harry and Ron were gibbering nonstop the rest of the day about how cool it was and all that. I only half-listened, wondering how long I would have to be with Krum to get over Draco.  
  
"Hermione, that group of girls over there are trying to vaporize you with their eyes." Ron said at lunch, pointing at a group of girls at the Ravenclaw table, who were glaring at me.   
  
"What's the matter with them?" I wondered aloud.  
  
"Didn't you listen to the rhyme? 'We've taken what you'll sorely miss...' Everyone's been talking about how you were what Krum would've missed."  
  
I turned pink. "Well, that's very flattering and all, but I don't really feel the same-"  
  
"Herm-Hermony?" A large hand had landed on my shoulder. I looked up into the nose of Bulgaria's most famous Quidditch player.  
  
"Er, yes, er, Krum?" I felt rather nervous. Before today, I had only seen him skulking around the library. Every time he came in I would have to leave, because his fan club would flounce in after a few minutes, trying to look casual.  
  
"I vas vondering if you vould be so kind as to let me escort you to the next Hogsmeade veekend?" (A/N: Sorry if that's not the right accent, I lost my GOF book! Wah!)  
  
My mind was going at about 50 million miles per hour. All I could come up with was "Um..."  
  
Someone poked me in the back of the head. "He's asking you out! Go for it!" Parvati hissed in my ear.  
  
Krum was standing there expectantly, wringing his hands. Through the gap between his arm and his body, I could see the other tables watching me. The Great Hall had become very quiet. Even the teachers weren't talking.  
  
I looked up at Viktor's face. For one brief moment he reminded me of Neville.  
  
"Um..." I said again. "Sure."  
  
People started moving again. Talking. Breathing.  
  
Staring.  
  
I looked down again, wishing Draco's face would go away.  
  
  
"Isn't it a beautiful view, Hermmon?"  
  
"Er, yeah." After a whole afternoon of correcting him, I didn't care how he pronounced my name. I just hoped he would keep his hands to himself for five minutes. He kept trying to hold my hand or put his arm around my shoulders, and it was starting to get irritating.  
  
Harry and Ron had promised me they wouldn't bug us, and for once they were actually keeping their promise. The one time I wanted them to show up, they don't. Why couldn't they have done this in the beginning? This was turning into the longest Saturday of my life. And it wasn't even half-over.  
  
We had just started walking again when an acorn hit Viktor right in the forehead.  
  
I looked over in the direction it had come from, and my heart sank as I saw Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle sitting on a fence nearby, their hands full of acorns.   
  
"Hey, behemouth, didn't anyone ever tell you steroids are bad for you?" Draco called, throwing another acorn and missing. "What's the matter? Can't string two words together? Just as well, we wouldn't be able to understand you! Vant to shpend da veekend vit mein?" Draco shouted, doing a bad imitation of a worse accent. "Speak English, stupid!"   
  
I pulled Viktor away as best I could. He was still glaring at Draco. Crabbe and Goyle were laughing their heads off.  
  
Emboldened, Draco stood up. Cupping his hands around his mouth, he shouted "Fine, Granger, go run and have a snog with your boy-toy!"   
  
I stopped, turned around, and walked over to them, getting right up in Draco's face. He was grinning cockily, arms crossed.  
  
"I would say some witty insult involving ferrets here, but those don't seem to penetrate your abnormally thick skull. So maybe this will."  
  
I drew back my fist and punched him so hard, he fell backwards off the fence.  
  
I scrambled over the fence, feeling an unmatched energy to beat him into a pile of pulp. A few good swings later, Viktor managed to pull me off him. 


	11. Houston, we have liftoff

Houston, we have liftoff!  
  
  
A/N: The highly anticipated "In-Which-They-Finally-Admit-They-Love-Each-Other-In-A-Fluffy-Way!" chapter! I can just hear you guys going, "Finally!"  
  
Yes, Draco was an ass, but he has his reasons...  
  
  
"When your time is up, Eloise, who is filling in for Penelope Clearwater, will come get you. I hope this will be the last time I see you for a Saturday detention, Ms. Granger." Prof. McGonagall was about as shocked as I was that I had two detentions in the same lifetime. I especially couldn't believe that they were both with-  
  
"Vell, vell, velcome bat ."  
  
Draco was grinning at me from inside the green house.   
  
"I don't want to talk to you." I snapped coldly.  
  
"But I want to talk to you. Why else would I provoke someone into hitting me without Snape around to take off points?"   
  
He wasn't going to make me smile, he wasn't going to make me smile...dammit, he's making me smile! Argh!  
  
I retreated to a corner farthest from him, and started plucking weeds. After about ten minutes, my bucket was full, so I turned to empty it into the larger one near the door, and almost ran into Draco, who had been standing right behind me.  
  
"What?" I asked, trying to keep my voice below freezing. It wasn't working.   
  
Instead of answering, he grabbed my hands in his.  
  
"Hermione, I never thought I'd say this, but those insufferable twins were right."   
  
"What?" I gaped, trying to escape his grasp.  
  
"Why are you still fighting this? You told George you love me, and if you didn't know it by now, I love you too, God dammit!" He half-shouted. "And if you still don't believe me, think about what I'm saying! Why are you fighting this?"  
  
"Because I'm scared, all right? Are you happy now?" I shouted. I backed away, into the center of the room. "This can't work." I said, staring at the ground. "Ron and Harry would never understand." I couldn't look at him. I loved him, but I was telling him I would throw that away to keep Ron and Harry as friends.  
  
His arms moved, almost by themselves, to my waist. He moved closer, pulling me against him.   
  
"It can work, Hermione," He whispered in my ear, "You just have to take this chance."  
  
A tear fell down my cheek. "Draco..."  
  
"Don't speak." He said, taking my face in his hands, guiding my face upwards, until I was looking straight into his eyes.  
  
He leaned his head forward, and kissed me...  
  
"Oh my god!" Eloise yelled.  
  
I pulled away from Draco quickly, staring at the ground again, trying to hid my red face. Draco was standing, stunned, in the middle of all the plants, his arms still out, like he was still holding me.  
  
"Um, hi Eloise." I said quickly, hoping she would play along and pretend she hadn't seen anything. "We're almost done here, I need to get some dinner, could you take over here?"  
  
I hadn't taken two steps towards the door before she replied "No, I can't take over making out with Draco for you." I turned even brighter red, and Eloise smiled. "But I can tell McGonagall that it's taking longer than you thought it would to get rid of all these weeds, so you need an extra ten minutes or so."  
  
Now I was the one who looked stunned. Draco, on the other hand, got what she meant right away and grinned.  
  
"I never thought I'd say this, but thanks, Eloise." He said.  
  
"Of all the people, I never thought it'd be you two." How could they both be so calm? All the blood in my body had decided to come above my neck and solidify at the moment. "Though I thought you looked really cute at the Yule Ball. Stupid Ron." She laughed. "Have fun." With that, she shut the door again.  
  
Draco looked at me. "You know, since she's filling in for Penelope, we have to do what she says."  
  
"And she did tell us have fun." I said, amazed these words were coming out of my mouth. I looked up at Draco. He was smiling.   
  
And I know I was smiling back. 


	12. Houston, we have a problem

Houston, we have a problem...  
  
  
A/N: What's the problem? You'll see.  
  
I beat my mile time by almost a minute yesterday for my P.E. final! And I thought about flipping off the teacher four times. Did twice. XD Rock on, my brothers.  
  
(P.S: Is it just me, or are there a lot more girls than guys on ff.net? Any guys out there reading this story? I doubt it, but you never know...)  
  
  
"I find it hard to believe you've never kissed a guy full-on before this; you must be a natural." Draco grinned at me nearly half an hour later. We were lying on the Greenhouse floor, his arms wrapped around my waist.   
  
"You'd be surprised how many other people find it hard to believe you've never kissed a guy full-on before too." I grinned up at him.  
  
"Touche. You know, you've got an incredible wit, just sitting there untapped." He kissed the top of my head.   
  
"I do use it, for truth, justice, and the American way."  
  
"We're not in America."  
  
"The English way, then."  
  
"I believe that's called the English channel."  
  
"Whatever. I need to find Ginny. And Fred and George. George'll be beside himself when he hears about this."  
  
"Wait, you told Ginny?"  
  
"After the first kiss. In the Greenhouse that night. I-"  
  
The door swung open again. I jumped up and stepped on Draco's hand.   
  
"Ow!" He cried, yanking his hand from under my foot. I slipped and fell backwards, tumbling into his lap.  
  
Eloise stuck her head inside. "Oh, sorry, I should have knocked or something."  
  
I groaned. "It's not what it...never mind. What?"  
  
"McGonagall's getting suspicious. She kept telling me some story about how it only took Fred and George ten minutes to weed all three greenhouses."  
  
Sighing, I said, "All right. I guess we've got to go." Turning to Draco, I asked, "What now?"  
  
"I'm thinking the library, tonight after dinner. Think you can make it?"  
  
"Wouldn't miss it for the world." I blushed, realizing Eloise was still standing there.  
  
"Yeah, but if you guys don't get out of here soon, you'll hear McGonagall's earth-shattering shouts."  
  
I sprang up. "I'll be in the section by Hogwarts, a History. No one ever goes back there anyway."  
  
  
After dinner I rushed to the library, Harry and Ron barely noticing I was gone. Draco was waiting outside the door.  
  
"Well, well, Granger. Looking for Krum-bum?" Looking around, I noticed Dennis and Collin Creevy standing a few feet away, which accounted for Draco's acidity. "Lucky you," Draco continued. "He's already inside."  
  
"Darn, now I have to find somewhere else to study." I sighed. "Hm, maybe that old classroom, on the third floor, left hand side, next to the statue of a troll." I coughed. "Er, yeah, I'll probably go study there."  
  
I turned to walk away. Around the corner, I suddenly felt so happy, I sprinted the rest of the way to the room, and almost ran over Collin and Dennis.  
  
"Watch where you're..." I trailed off, looking at their faces. "What?"  
  
"Is something up with you and Draco?" Man, Dennis has never heard of something called being subtle.  
  
"What?" I gasped. Luckily, they didn't realize it was from fear, not shock at the ludicrousness of their accusation.  
  
"Ignore him." Collin piped up apologetically. "We were just wondering, cause of the way he warned you Krum was already in the library. Sorry."  
  
With that, they turned and ran off.   
  
"Odd little buggers, aren't they?" I muttered to myself.  
  
"Yeah, but they mean well." Draco had come up behind me. "They just want to make sure their little Hermykins isn't getting mixed up with that horrible Draco character." Draco held open the door for me, and shut it behind us.  
  
"You keep talking like that, we won't have to bother with sneaking around." I grinned. "Look, during dinner, I was thinking about some different ideas about schedules. Now, this one-" I pulled a piece of paper out of my Arithmacy book. "Is based a lot on time during the weekends and breaks, but it-"  
  
Draco grabbed the paper, glanced at it, and crumpled it into a ball, tossing it over his shoulder.  
  
"Hermione, have you ever done anything spontaneous in your life?"   
  
"Loads of things."  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"Like this."  
  
I grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled him towards me, kissing him hard on the lips.   
  
"There now, was that so painful?" Draco asked when we finally broke the kiss, looking slightly dazed.  
  
"Only to watch."   
  
I spun around. Harry was standing in the doorway, looking livid. Without another word, he turned and bolted.  
  
  
A/N: Ooh! Harry knows! And if you're wondering, he followed them. Why? I have my reasons...*Assitant whispers in ear.* I don't? Oh, well, then cause I said so.  
  
And to whoever asked, I am not going to go into the whole 'How-Lucius-Reacts-To-Draco-Dating-A-Muggle-Born' thing. Not even going near it. Nuh-uh. I like my fantasy world where the biggest problem is your friends not liking your boyfriend. 


	13. Dark Matter Black Space Between the Star...

Dark Matter (Black space between stars)  
  
  
A/N: In one of my reviews, someone said they couldn't wait to see how I incorporated the Tri-Wizard tournament. What's funny is that until a while ago, I had forgotten about the Tri-Wizard tournament, just like Hermy. BTW, which nickname do you guys like more? Herm, or Mione? I personally prefer Mione, just because Herm sounds like Perm, and those things are pretty scary if done wrong...  
  
  
"This is not good, this is so not good." I muttered, more to myself than to Draco, who was sitting on a desk, calmly swinging his legs.  
  
"Come on, Harry will understand." He chuckled. "And if not, you don't need a friend like him anyway."  
  
"You just don't get it, do you?" I snapped. "Harry, Ron, and I have been through a lot. A lot more than you and I have been through."  
  
He looked at me skeptically. "Was that a threat?"  
  
"Hell yes." I barked. Shaking my head, I sat down on a desk. "I cannot believe how amazingly complicated things have gotten."  
  
"Don't worry." Draco had softened again. He was like that strange stuff my aunt showed me how to make one time. You mix like, three fourths of cup of corn starch and half a cup of water, and you get this really weird stuff. It's really hard when you try and poke it really fast, but if you wait a while, it gets all soft and liquid-y. "It will all be okay."  
  
"How can you be so sure?" I cried.  
  
"Because I love you." He wrapped his arms around my shoulders. "And you love me too. And love conquers all."  
  
"Actually, it's true love conquers all." We both jumped again as Ginny stuck her head in the door. "But I think you two have it covered anyway."  
  
"Is there no privacy in this whole god-damned castle?" Draco screamed.  
  
"Watch your language around our sister." Fred and George were right behind her. "Just because Hermione likes you doesn't mean we have to."   
  
"Oh great. Where's Ron? And Percy? And whatever else lives in that house with you?" Draco sighed.  
  
"Hey, the only non-human things in our house are our owls, and the ghoul-" Fred began, but George interrupted.  
  
"I'm sorry, but you two together is beyond creepy." He shuddered  
  
"You're the ones who were trying to set us up in the first place." I grumbled, but I was smiling.  
  
"Speaking of which..." George tried to look innocent. "I think someone owes me an apology."  
  
"Don't push your luck." Draco growled.  
  
"Shush." I scolded. "For me, would you guys at least pretend to act civil?"  
  
"It'll be strech, but..." Fred pretended to think it over while George scratched his head.  
  
"Whatever." Ginny sighed. "I think it's cute. Bitter rivals, turned star-crossed lovers. It'll be like Romeo and Juliette, minus the whole, you know, killing themselves thing."  
  
"No, everyone else will do that for us when they find out. This school isn't full of Benvolio's, you know." He sighed.  
  
I looked at him. "You know Shakespeare?"  
  
"Had to do something for fourteen years before I got with you."  
  
"Watch it, or it could be another fourteen before you get any more."  
  
Draco kissed me. "Only about fourteen seconds, there."  
  
"Okay, this is beyond disgusting." Fred covered his eyes. "You two flirting, I could handle, but kissing is way too weird at the moment."  
  
"Then don't watch." Draco wiggled his eyebrows at them before kissing me again.  
  
Pretty soon all three of them left, leaving me and Draco to an hour of blissful alone-time.  
  
  
When I got back to the common room, it was empty except for Ron and Harry.  
  
"Hermione, where've you been?" Ron cried, looking up from his Divination homework. I looked over at Harry, who wouldn't look at me.  
  
"Studying." I said simply.  
  
"For what?" Harry muttered, a sour look on his face.  
  
"Everything, if I know Herm." Ron laughed.  
  
"You'd be surprised to know that you don't." He snapped, standing up and stomping up the boys stairs.  
  
Ron watched him go in amazement. "What was that all about?"  
  
I swallowed hard. "I have no idea."  
  
  
A/N: That's an actual recepie up there. Try it sometime. I was going for a similie. Anyone get it? 


	14. Lost In Space

Lost In Space  
  
  
  
A/N: Draco's still being deprogrammed from thinking like his dad. It's a pretty stupid fight, but yeah...  
  
  
  
Harry was barely speaking to me anymore, but he hadn't told Ron, as far as I knew. Ron seemed oblivious to the whole thing. Sometimes I loved him for his short attention span  
  
Having Draco did make it easier, but like I said before, he was no compensation for losing half of my best friends.   
  
"Why do you care so much?" He asked me one night before dinner. Herbiology had been canceled, something had gotten into Greenhouse Two, where we were supposed to be working, and nearly burned the place down. (I later saw Prof. Sprout screaming at Hagrid.)  
  
"He's my friend. My best friend, Draco. And before you say I can make new friends, remember that even though he doesn't want to be, Harry is the most popular guy in school-"  
  
"One of the most. I'm still tops with a fourth of the students."  
  
"-Even so, a lot more people will feel inclined to side with him and Ron. I mean, I lied to them, I went out with their worst enemy, I snuck around behind their backs, I ditched them a fair amount of times, I-"  
  
"So?" He asked, shrugging. "I'm failing to see what their problem is."  
  
"I betrayed their trust. Big time."  
  
"Is that all?"  
  
"Draco! I'm serious!"  
  
"So am I. So you went out with someone they disapproved of. So what? You should be able to live your own life, however you like it. And if they can't deal, are they really as good of friends as you thought?"  
  
I opened my mouth to rebut that...and closed it again.  
  
"Ha! See, you never thought of that before, did you?"  
  
"Oh, shut up."   
  
"There's only one way to shut me up, you know that."  
  
"I'm not sure I want to 'shut you up' now."  
  
"If you think that's going to stop me from shutting up, then you're sadly mistaken."  
  
"Why, are you going to shut yourself up?"  
  
"Wouldn't you like to know?"  
  
"What you do at night is none of my business."  
  
"For the time being."  
  
"How would that work, exactly? I know, even if we ever get to that stage in our relationship, that we would need somewhere to go. I know my parents would have us locked in separate bedrooms on the other side of the country. And I feel pretty sure your parents wouldn't feel too great about you banging your girlfriend in their house, no matter how far away your room is in your castle."  
  
"No problem, we could stay in the guest cottage out back."  
  
"Cottage?"   
  
"Cottage, mansion, complex, same difference."  
  
"See, maybe to you it's all the same, but to all us people who don't live in Draco's Lil' Fantasy Rich Boy World, there is a big difference."  
  
"Most Muggles seem to think so."  
  
"Meaning?"  
  
"The Muggle world can only take so much 'abnormality.' You look at Hogwarts, and it seems like a second home. To Muggles, it looks like it could never be a home to anyone."  
  
"And you're suddenly an expert on Muggles?"  
  
"I've met enough of the stupid gits."  
  
"Excuse me? Have you forgotten I'm a Muggle?" I sat up straight, looking down at him. He sat up also, leaning against the wall.  
  
"You are, at least, a talented Muggle."  
  
Never have I been this close to smacking him (and managed to restrain myself, that is.)  
  
"I am a witch, Draco Malfoy, and don't you forget it!"   
  
"You are a Muggle witch!"   
  
I seem to be developing my arm muscles at an alarming rate. When I hit him this time, he stayed down.  
  
"You are a very talented, very sexy, increasingly violent Muggle girl who happens to be good at waving a wand!"   
  
He just won't shut up...  
  
"If you still think like that, why are you wasting your precious time with me right now?" I shouted down at him, wondering why I'd ever thought he could change.  
  
"Good point." He picked himself up, trying to look as dignified as he could with a bloody nose, and stomped out the door toward the castle. One of the windows behind me shattered suddenly, but I'm not sure if it was him or me that did it.  
  
Great.  
  
"Hermione?"  
  
Just great.  
  
"What the hell was that?" Ron screamed from a few yards away. Harry was behind him.   
  
"Ron, I-"  
  
He was already stalking away. Harry stood there for a few seconds, just glaring at me.  
  
"Harry, I would have...but you would...he's not-" I couldn't think of anything that would help the situation, so I was almost glad when Harry interrupted me, letting me just shut up before I made it worse.  
  
"Whatever." He followed Ron.  
  
Fucking great. 


	15. Crash Landing

Crash-Landing  
  
  
A/N: Ginny's kinda annoying, isn't she? She has way too much fun picking on Hermione, but I guess going with her is payback.  
  
  
  
This whole damn school is against me.  
  
My two best friends are now not speaking to me, and the guy that's the cause of that isn't speaking to me either. The two guys who set me up with said guy aren't talking to me either, so they won't be contaminated with the crazy bug that everyone in Gryffindor, thanks to said ex-best friends, thinks I've been infected with. In fact, thanks to Ron and Harry, the only Gryffindor still speaking to me is...  
  
"Ginny, you have to come with me."  
  
"Why me? What about Fred or George?"  
  
"They can't keep their mouths shut. They'll get in a fight. I need you! I've already lost Ron and Harry because of Draco, and I'll be damned if I lose Draco after all this."  
  
  
"Are you sure this is where we're supposed to go?" Ginny asked. "We've been wandering around the dungeons for near ten minutes now."  
  
"Yeah, I saw Draco go down here once after...after."  
  
"Saw, or watched?" She grinned at me, and I felt like strangling her for the seven millionth time that night.   
  
"Don't make me go alone. Please."  
  
"Are you sure you want to do this?"   
  
"What else can I do? After all I've done, exiling myself from my friends and taking relationship advice from George, I can't just walk away. Plus...it's Draco." I sighed.  
  
"Oh gag me." Ginny interrupted.   
  
"We're here." I told her, a little miffed. "See, if you look closely, there are a few bricks that are slightly darker than the others in the wall, and they make this snake-like 'S' symbol."   
  
"Do you know the password, you purveyor of Parsletonge'd pretty boys?"  
  
"Uh..." I hadn't thought that far ahead, for once. "D'you think we can just knock, or-"  
  
The wall slid open.  
  
"Well, that solves that prob-" Ginny didn't have time to finish her sentence as a pair of large, muscled arms grabbed us and pulled us inside. 


	16. Little Green Men

Little Green Men  
  
  
  
Before I knew what had happened, I was standing in the Slytherin common room, wishing I wasn't. A girl I vaguely recognized was nearly strangling me with my robes.  
  
"You've got a lot of guts to come around here after what you did to Draco, little girl." A sixth year, June I think, growled at me. "Guts I want to see Filch cleaning off the floor."  
  
I found myself flat against the wall soon after that, a fist flying at my face. I closed my eyes and braced myself for the impact.   
  
It never came.  
  
I opened one eye tentatively. Draco was standing in front of me, holding June's fist in his hand.  
  
"What, do you think you're doing?" He asked in this creepy calm voice.  
  
"Beating her up." June's reply was just as calm, but more rushed, like she couldn't wait for Draco to get out of the way so she could finish the job.  
  
"No, you're not-"  
  
"Come on, Draco, she totally hurt you!" Crabbe cried out.  
  
"In front of the Weasel!" Goyle added. The rest of the common room started shouting about all the other stuff I'd (supposedly) done to Draco. I stood there, too afraid to move.   
  
Maybe this wasn't one of my better ideas...  
  
"Hey, hey, HEY!" Draco yelled, holding his hands up for silence. "She is a lady, and she will be treated with the same respect you would give any other woman you met." He stared hard at me. "Unless I say otherwise."  
  
Now I wasn't so scared, just annoyed. "Gee, aren't you just a charming lil' drill sergeant." I muttered sarcastically, looking around at all the angry faces.  
  
"Would you rather I let them do what they wish to you?" Draco replied cooly. "I doubt you'd leave in one piece."  
  
I gulped. "Um, can I talk to you in private?"  
  
"I don't see why not, after everything else we've done in private." He replied, causing a chorus of cat-calls.  
  
Ginny's elbow stabbed me in the back. "What about me?" She hissed.  
  
"Make some new friends." I told her, following Draco down a hallway.  
  
"Right." Ginny muttered nervously as the group of Slytherins began closing in around her.  
  
  
"June was right, you do have a lot of guts to come here, especially after that memorable Greenhouse incident." Draco was trying to play the indifferent spectator again. I was busy looking around his dorm room to be mildly annoyed.   
  
"Which one?" I smirked as his cheeks turned red. I had no intention of making this easy for him. "Is that you?" I asked, pointing to a picture of a baby playing in a cauldron.  
  
"Whichever one you enjoyed most." He snaps back, ignoring my second question, but flipping a few more pictures face down. He isn't going to make it easy for me either.  
  
"I think the kissing one, actually." I said, in all earnestness. "The first time, it was innocent and sweet, and neither of us really saw it coming."  
  
"If we had, would you have done anything?" He asked suddenly.  
  
"What?"  
  
"If you really were a Seer, and could see the future, and what a mess this has turned into, would you still have let me kiss you?"  
  
I had to think about that one for a while. "Yes." I said finally.  
  
"Why?" He asked, stepping towards me.  
  
"Because if I could see the future, I'd see how great things are going to turn out between us. As a hunky guy once-incorrectly-said, 'Love conquers all.'" Draco blushed, honest-to-god, pink cheeks and all. "And I foresee love conquering this whole castle, starting right about..."  
  
"Now." Draco finished, pulling me towards him.  
  
  
A/N: I totally suck at romantic moments. I picture in my head the perfect kiss, but it just doesn't transfer to the laptop very well. I wish I had a chip for my head, where I could download my ideas. All the romance scenes I've tried to write were either cheesy sounding, or not good enough, according to me. 


	17. Fission

Fission  
  
  
A/N: Ahh, fission. Where everything comes apart. Read on, loyal readers. It's short, but I've got more up my sleeve for later.  
  
  
  
We walked back into the common room, unprepared for what we saw...   
  
"Okay, you put your left foot in." Ginny said, balancing herself on Goyle's shoulder. "Then you take your left foot out. You put your left foot in, and you shake it all about."  
  
All the other Slytherins were following her example, forming a loose circle in the center of the common room. Minus June, of course, who was watching from the edge of the couch, looking disgusted.   
  
"You do the hokey-pokey and you turn yourself around-" She had started hopping in a circle on one foot when she caught sight of us. "Oh, er, hi." She said, turning red.   
  
"Looks like you made several new friends." I laughed.  
  
"And you made one old one." Draco added, kissing my cheek.  
  
"Oh, look!" Ginny grinned. "They're back together!"   
  
"Yeah, great." Blaise said. "Now how does this end?"  
  
"Oh. That's what it's all about!" Ginny finished her circle before she ran over and hugged me.  
  
"So, now that everyone pretty much knows from those blabber-mouthed buddies of yours, would you do me the honor of letting me escort you to dinner?"  
  
"I would be delighted."  
  
  
No one else was very delighted, though.  
  
A barrage of silence hit as we walked into the Great Hall holding hands.  
  
Though the barrage of food afterwards was worse.  
  
I peeled a piece of spaghetti off the side of my face, Draco holding onto my sleeve. Despite hiding behind me, he had several peas in his hair, along with a piece of some sort of fruit.  
  
"Very mature, everyone." I said loudly, looking around at all the tables. "Nobody made this big of a deal about Fred and Angelina."  
  
"Cause I'm not dating a sack of crap." Angelina responded, standing up. Fred was staring at his plate. I took that to mean Fred hadn't told her he knew before.  
  
"No, you're just acting like one." I snapped back. "In case you haven't noticed, I like Draco because he's treated me like a human being, not an encyclopedia in the shape of a girl, only there when you need help with charms-" I stared hard at Harry. "-Potions-" With a glare at Neville. "-or a date if everyone else turned you down." Ron wouldn't look at me, obviously remembering the Yule Ball. "I am not a safety net! Draco-yes, Draco, Dean, not Malfoy-likes me for me, not because I could get him a passing grade in Transfiguration! And if you brave, noble Gryffindor's can't accept that, then you leave me no choice!"   
  
I shifted my bag to my other shoulder and walked calmly to the Slytherin table. They had already cleared a seat.  
  
Wait a minute, only one?  
  
I glanced back, and saw Draco slip out of the Great Hall.  
  
  
A/N: In a way, Hogwarts is much more open than a lot of other schools. If you look carefully, they're disapproving of this relationship on the grounds of personality, not looks or race. But they've still got blind spots, as you all know.  
  
Wow. That sounded half-way intelligent. Go me.  
  
I can't believe I started this story as a poorly disguised diary entry many eons ago. I've had hamsters that haven't lasted this long.  
  
Does anyone else's family and friends have no idea how into this we are? None of my friends or family even know that I write fanfiction. Except for Bree, who hasn't reviewed but she's sent me like twelve e-mails and is now my beta-reader. 


	18. Fusion

Fusion  
  
A/N: And after fission, there's fusion, where everything comes together.   
  
Prologue: Midnight at Hogwarts. A large rock forming a plateau a little ways over the lake is our setting. During the day, the rocks are ignored by all but those who choose to sit on them during breaks. At night, however, it is a common place for young lovers to meet...  
  
I stood there quietly, staring at the dark silhouette atop the rock. I let my eyes trace over the curving muscles in his arms, which were wrapped around his legs, trying to protect them from the light wind that had picked up.   
  
I debated going back to the castle, letting him sit there all night, freezing his ass off. Then I shook my head. I couldn't do that, not even to Draco. He deserved a chance to explain his actions at dinner last night.  
  
I took a step, the leaves crunching under my feet. At the sound, Draco looked up. His face communicated more clearly than words could express how nervous he was.  
  
"Hermione." he said simply.  
  
"Draco." I replied cooly, not to be outdone. I carefully climbed up onto the rock, until I was standing in front of him.  
  
We stood silently, staring at each other. The wind picked up again, blowing a loose piece of hair across my face. Like a reflex, he reached up and gently tucked it behind my ear. Despite the cold, I blushed lightly.   
  
"Hermione, I've been waiting to ask you this for so long..." Draco said, taking my hands.  
  
I managed a quiet, excited squeak. I had no idea what he was going to ask, but it pretty much had to be good.  
  
"Hermione Granger..."  
  
"Yes?" I asked breathlessly.  
  
"Would you ever, maybe, possibly..."  
  
"Yes?" I asked again, leaning forward ever so slightly.  
  
"Hypothetically..."  
  
"Draco," I said quietly. "Maybe it would be best if you whispered it to me."  
  
He nodded, gulping. He leaned closer, his soft lips millimeters from my ear. I felt his warm breath against my ear as he whispered...  
  
"Will you help me with my transfiguration homework?" He asked in a rush.  
  
I jerked back like I'd had been struck with lightning. Repeatedly. He was doubled over laughing.  
  
"Draco Malfoy, you...you are just too much sometimes!" I spluttered, like an indignant motor boat.   
  
"Wait-" He barely had time to straighten up before I shoved him backwards off the rock.  
  
The moment passed in slow motion for me as I watched Draco's shocked face. I felt a tug at my heart as I watched him fall towards the lake.  
  
Wait, the tug was at my arm.  
  
My scream was drowned out (No pun intended) as we both splashed into the lake.  
  
Oh, I'm going to hurt him! I fumed, treading water. It's freezing, yet he picks tonight to drag me into the lake.  
  
He popped up again like some deranged toaster strudel. "You've got to admit, that was fun. Or at least funny. The look on your face-"  
  
"Fun? No. Mildly cardiac arrest-inducing? Yes." I started to swim for shore, but he grabbed my robe.  
  
"I promise you, this will be fun." He pulled me close to him.  
  
"Drowning in the lake in the middle of the night is supposed to be fun?" I looked at him skeptically.   
  
"No, this is." He kissed my lips lightly, making me shiver even more.  
  
Once it was too cold and we were too tired to stay in the lake, we waded out and collapsed under a tree. Draco glanced up at the moon.  
  
"I figure we have half an hour before we need to go back to the castle." He said. "Then we can still get at least about six hours of sleep."  
  
I kissed him again. "Who needs sleep?"  
  
A/N: I guess you guys will never find out why he left at dinner...XD Okay, he left to go get cleaned up. Happy?  
  
Everyone: NO!  
  
Well, too bad XP 


	19. Hey, you! Off of my cloud!

Hey, you! Off of my cloud!  
  
  
  
  
  
A/N: Possibly the funnest thing to write in this chapter was McGonagall's over-reaction. And Draco's reaction to her reaction.  
  
One of the most unpleasant ways to wake up is with your boyfriend sleeping next to you, arms wrapped around each other, and your favorite teacher standing over you shouting.  
  
"...nearly in a panic, Parvati told me you never came back to your dorm after dinner, and you weren't there when she woke up...Mr. Malfoy, wake up!" McGonagall screamed.  
  
"Hullo." He said dryly, not opening his eyes. Suddenly they flew open, and he sat up in terror. "Prof. McGonagall." He gulped. "I-I can explain..."  
  
She glared down at him sharply.  
  
"Ac-actually, no I can't." He shrank back against the tree again.  
  
"Ms. Granger, I would like to know what is going on, and how long it has been going on at this...level. No, wait!" She cut me off before I could open my mouth. "You both will come with me to the castle, where you shall explain yourselves! Get up! NOW!"  
  
McGonagall was so mad, she barely noticed as she turned a corner and completely bowled over Prof. Flitwick, scattering papers everywhere. As we were yanked along, Draco and I exchanged several worried glances, unsure of what was coming.  
  
I suddenly realized I'd never been in this part of the castle before. It must be the teacher's quarters. Before I figured out where we were going, we had been propelled head-first into a dreary looking room with only one occupant.   
  
"Severus, just the man I was hoping I wouldn't have to see." Prof. McGonagall shoved Draco towards him. "Mr. Malfoy and Ms. Granger spent the night unsupervised at the lake's shore. I will leave him in your care. I have already taken points off Slytherin and Gryffindor, and they both are receiving a weeks worth of detentions, and whatever else you may wish."  
  
Draco caught my eye when she said the word 'detentions,' and it took all my strength to not burst out laughing, despite being in major trouble.  
  
McGonagall seemed to notice, because she added, "Separate detentions." before dragging me off towards her office.  
  
Once we were alone, it took her a while before she settled down. First she paced around her desk a while, then stared out the window, and finally sat down behind her desk and asked me, "Hermione, has Draco ever asked about any of the Gryffindor Quidditch team's plays?"  
  
My mouth dropped open. Whatever I was expecting, that wasn't it...  
  
"Or has he ever asked about the password to the Gryffindor common room? Or maybe the Weasley's summer plans?   
  
"Prof. McGonagall, I cannot believe you think Draco would use me like that!"  
  
"'I like mankind, it's people I don't trust.'" She quoted.   
  
"You may not trust him, but I do! You don't know him the way I do!"  
  
Prof. McGonagall glared at me over the rims of her glasses. "How exactly do you know him?"  
  
I was slightly taken aback. "Would you care to elaborate?" I asked icily.  
  
"Why, Ms. Granger, do you think he's chosen now to show his feelings? The Slytherin Quidditch team is at it's worst in years, the Gryffindor team is flourishing-"  
  
"Prof. McGonagall, when we're together, Quidditch is the last thing on our minds!" I cannot believe I'm shouting at a professor. I'm going to be in so much trouble. "And if you don't believe that two people can overcome how they were brought up and fall in love without ulterior motives, well then, you are one sad, sorry, son of a bitch!"  
  
I don't believe myself sometimes. I feel like I'm going to wake up any second and throw up.  
  
McGonagall is sitting there, motionless. I realize what I just said, and gasp.  
  
"Oh my goodness, Prof. McGonagall, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean that-"  
  
She reached into her pocket for a Kleenex, dabbing at her forehead as she told me, "It's okay, Hermione. Sometimes love does odd things to us all."  
  
I looked at her skeptically, taken aback. "So, you do believe it's love?"  
  
She sighed. "Strictly off the record, I think anything that would have you cussing out a professor would have to be love."  
  
I sighed with relief.  
  
"That doesn't mean you'll be getting away with it."  
  
Shit.  
  
A/N: Draco's rubbing off on her, eh? I can't imagine what Snape's interrogation was like...oh wait, I can XD I may write a ficclet about that... 


	20. Total Eclipse of the Heart

Total Eclipse Of The Heart  
  
  
  
A/N: Um...Have a nice day? Oh, and keep in mind, getting Ron to admit he was wrong about anything is like pulling arms and twisting teeth :)  
  
Poetic License Alert: To keep the happy feelings alive, Cedric was only knocked out by Voldie, and Harry and him both escaped alive. For some unknown reason, nobody talks about it very much. Harry and Ron come crawling back to Hermione and eat their crow fairly well. But then again, wouldn't you?  
  
Detention. Three weeks of scrubbing chamber pots. Fun.   
  
"Hermione!"   
  
I turned around. Hadn't heard that for a while. "Ron?"  
  
He sprinted down the corridor towards me, then bent and rested his hands on his knees, panting. He held up one finger. "Just a minute."  
  
Harry had also come up behind him, and he was looking rather sheepish.  
  
"Well, we thought about this long and hard," Ron started.  
  
"We even discussed it." Harry added.  
  
"Anyway, we realized how precious time is after Harry's brush with-"  
  
"Would you get to the point before you make us all late?" Harry shoved Ron, a note of discomfort in his voice. "We still need to get to Divination."  
  
"Yeah, okay, we're sorry for acting like ass holes these past few weeks, and I'm having a party this summer, to celebrate, er, Harry being alive, and stuff..." Ron groaned, like the words were causing him physical pain. "And you can come. And you can bring Draco if you really, really want to."  
  
I stood there stunned. "Oh my God, aliens have captured my friends and replaced them with life-like drones."  
  
"Friends again?" Harry grinned hopefully. In response I threw my arms around him, squeezing him until he turned blue.  
  
"Aw, come on." Ron groaned. He grabbed my hand and yanked me towards my Arithmacy classroom. "You'll be late-"  
  
"Ron, you are the best friend a girl could ever have!" I screamed, grabbing him around the neck.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, stop slobbering on me or I'll have to start calling you Fang." He sighed. "Now I get the pleasant task of explaining to my family why the son of their most hated enemy will be joining us for tea and crumpets...I'd like to reiterate the fact that we're only doing this so you'll be happy."  
  
"You owe us big! Just make sure he's with you, or he might end up getting jumped." Harry warned as they headed off for Divination.  
  
I turned around, feeling like skipping to Arithmacy. Instead I skipped right into Parvati and Lavander.  
  
"Hermione Granger." Lavander shook her head. "You are a disgrace to all woman-kind."  
  
"After all they put you through, you're forgiving them-just like that!" Parvati snapped her fingers. "What's up, girl? You're supposed to be stronger than that! You're supposed to be the fighter!"  
  
"Well..." I thought about it for a second. "I've known Ron a long time. A really long time. He doesn't like admitting he's wrong or apologizing...basic guy stuff. So for him to actually apologize, then quasi-accept Draco, well, that's a really bid move for him."  
  
They stared back at me, unconvinced.  
  
"Okay, think about it this way-his family's going to beat him into a bloody pulp when he tries to explain why Draco's coming over. An angry Mrs. Weasley is enough punishment for anything."  
  
That satisfied them, I guess, and as they walked off, I heard Parvati whisper to Lavender, "See? I told you she'd have a back-up plan!"  
  
"Well, ex-cuse me for wanting to be sure!"  
  
A/N: Not nearly good enough in comparison of how long I took to write it, I know. I've just been caught up in all the end of year stuff. Like sleeping. 


	21. White Hole

White Hole  
  
-  
  
A/N: Some people theorize that there is another end to a black hole, where matter that was sucked into a black hole will re-materialize. I don't think it's been proven yet, but I'm not sure. This whole chapter is dedicated to DMRox, who may or may not be reading this still. I was reading the reviews for random chapters, and in Chapter 7, she said something about wanting to see them salsa dancing.  
  
And this is just a general apology for being absent for so long; I hope I can start writing again once I finish this...it's been hanging over my head making me feel guilty about writing anything else...so I just want to finish it...  
  
-  
  
We had finally procured a quiet spot in the kitchen. The whole house was practically deserted, except for the bathrooms. Mayonnaise should not be left out in the sun for too long.  
  
"Finally..." Draco muttered, pulling me close to him. Just as we were getting cozy, the door swung open.  
  
"Hey Hermione, hey Draco." Bill walked in, grabbed a soda out of the fridge, and opened it. "Hot as hell, isn't it?" He asked, before chugging almost half the can.  
  
We stood there like deer in headlights. Bill seemed not to notice.  
  
"Uh, Bill? Aren't you gonna..." I trailed off as he looked at me funny.  
  
"Tell you I don't approve of what you're doing? Make you feel bad? Worse than Ron and Harry did?" He laughed. "Hey, whatever floats your boat, as long as your happy," He pointed at Draco with the can, splashing a bit of his soda on the floor. "And he watches his mouth."  
  
"Will do, sir." Draco saluted him smartly, standing at attention.  
  
"You don't know how absurd that looks." Bill grinned. "Like one of the Buckingham guards doing a salsa with a plastic pink flamingo."  
  
"Hey, I happen to like salsa dancing." I pouted.   
  
"And I like plastic pink flamingos. Anyway, don't mean to sound rude, but where the hell did you learn to salsa?" Bill asked, grinning bigger.  
  
"I learned when we went to France. We stayed in the same hotel as this Spanish couple and their son. He taught me."  
  
"Should I be jealous?" Draco asked, furrowing his brows.  
  
"I doubt it. I was twelve, he was seventeen, we were the only people under forty in the whole place, and I was more interested in the dance than him." I laughed, trying to remember what he looked like. "Eric couldn't even speak much English, come to think of it. Or maybe he was just really quiet."  
  
We went back outside, and I lost track of Draco for few minutes. When I found him again, he was grinning. I instantly felt my stomach flip.  
  
"What did you do? Did you spike the punch-"  
  
A pounding beat filled my ears. I looked towards the DJ tables, Bill grinning merrily as he expertly blended out the old song and replaced it with a sultry Shakira number.  
  
Oh, god...  
  
"Like the punch isn't spiked already. Come on."  
  
'Draco, I haven't since I was like, twelve. Draco-"  
  
Too late. He had dragged me onto the dance floor  
  
"If you don't remember," He shrugged. "Fake it. No one else will notice."  
  
He was right; no one did. 


	22. Do You Believe

Do You Believe...  
  
A/N: I have nothing to say...until the end of this chapter.  
  
We were on our way outside after grabbing some water when I had one of the more surreal moments of the night.  
  
"Hi Angelina, hey Fred." I smiled at them as we passed, Draco cowering behind me slightly. I suppose he was afraid Angelina was packing fruit again.  
  
I heard a sigh, then "Hermione, wait!" I turned around again, Draco still heading outside. Angelina looked at Fred like 'Do I really have to do this?'   
  
Fred nodded and nudged her forward. She sighed again.  
  
"I just wanted to say, I guess I was wrong." She rushed. "Draco's been a real gentleman all day, to everyone. I don't know why, but I'm not complaining. It's an improvement."  
  
"Thanks." I grinned. "And don't feel bad about the whole...let's just say everything. It took twice as long just to convince George, and I don't know how long it took before he convinced Fred to help set us up-"  
  
"You helped set them up?" Angelina forgot about me and glared back at Fred. "You told me you had no idea until Harry and Ron told you."  
  
"Um, what I meant was...uh, I love you?"  
  
"Oops." I backed out the door slowly, as Angelina advanced on Fred.  
  
Laughing, I turned and ran into Draco.  
  
"Oh, I think I just got Fred into trouble-" He silenced me with a kiss  
  
"Oh, I think right now, I only want to show you this amazing little out-of-the way place Dean, of all people, showed me. He was just coming back with Hannah Abbott, wonder how long that's been going on..."  
  
"Wow." Was all I could say. To get to this small plateau on the hill leading up to the Weasley's Quidditch pitch, hidden from the normal path by an over-grown rose bush, we'd had to walk almost all the way around the hill, then climb up the rocky way. But it was worth it.   
  
The view was spectacular. Well, what I could still see. It had gotten really dark as we had climbed up the hill, and I collapsed against a rock once we made it up there.  
  
"God, that's tiring." I sighed.  
  
"Sorry to have to make you move again so soon, but you have one more dance before you can sit."  
  
He extended a hand to me. I took it and stood up, draping my arms over his shoulders. He rested one hand near my neck, and looped the other around my waist, pulling me close to him.  
  
"Ever hear this song before, Granger?" The use of the old title took me by surprise, but as I listened to the song, I couldn't help but grin.  
  
"Show me the meaning, of being lonely..."  
  
"Why, I believe I have, Malfoy."  
  
We swayed in time to the music, everything perfect again.  
  
When 'our song' faded out and was replaced by a techno beat, we laid back on the hill together, his arms clasped around my shoulders, listening to the steady pulse of the music, gazing at the millions of stars above us.  
  
"Yes." I whispered.  
  
"Yes what?" He asked, pulling me closer to him.  
  
"The new song." I replied in a whisper. "It just went 'Do you believe in love after life?' I do now."  
  
He kissed the top of my head. "Me too." He whispered. "Me too."  
  
The End  
  
A/N: I feel so sad now! I can't believe this is actually done with! The song belongs, I think, to Cher. Feel free to correct me on this. Oh my god, I'm gonna go cry now. :C) Oh wow, it's so strange to think this is done. Finished. Caput. That's it. Fin...  
  
...hey, what's that arrow doing down there? This is the last chapter isn't it? 


	23. Special Bonus!

Special Bonus! DVD Version-Deleted Scenes  
  
A/N: These are scenes that really didn't fit into the story, but were too good to delete. Just be glad I don't do Director's Commentary...conceived out of my latest guilt trip at taking forever to write the last three chapters...  
  
-  
  
Two Points-So I lied. I feel like doing Director's commentary. This was supposed to be somewhere between when Harry finds out and when Ron does. Hermione tries to talk to Harry about it, but he's a little pissed off at the moment...plus Snape shows off his human side. Pretty 0.0  
  
"If you want to date that sack of crap, I don't really give a damn anymore!"  
  
"Hey Harry, ever heard of 'deja moo?'" I screamed at his retreating figure. "It's the feeling you've heard this bull shit before!"  
  
I felt a tap on my shoulder. I was so angry it took me a moment to realize Prof. Snape was standing behind me. I sighed, waiting for him to shovel another load on me.  
  
"Two points off Gryffindor for coarse language, Ms. Granger." He stated, so simply it was as if he were reading out of the rule book.  
  
I stared at him in shock. "Sir, are you feeling okay?"  
  
"Slightly overwhelmed as of late, but other than that, fine, why?"  
  
"You took off two points."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"That's how much you're supposed to take off."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"From Gryffindor?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Two points only?"   
  
"After all you've been through, I don't feel you need me to make people hate you." Was I cracking from all the stress, or was he about to smile? "Would you rather I make it fifty, and see how fast Ms. Weasley deserts you then?"  
  
Okay, no smile. I walked away quickly, feeling slightly creeped out.  
  
-  
  
Good Girl/Bad Girl-A Hermione mind, infused with essence of Parvati and Lavender...  
  
"If you guys would just let me get a sentence out, maybe I could explain!" I screamed at him.  
  
Even if they would have listened to me, would I have been able to explain? I doubted it. I don't think I could have explained why I was attracted to Draco. Why after fending off Viktor and Ron and occasionally Seamus I felt the desire to be with the one guy who had never given me any idea that he wanted to be with me.  
  
Was it really because he never used me for grades?   
  
Or was it because he'd started looking like Spike from 'Buffy' ever since he began styling his hair with Sleek-E-Zy hair gel?  
  
Maybe a mixture of both...  
  
No. Hair. Definitely.   
  
-  
  
True Confessions-Haba jiba jiba gee! That's the gibberish translation of 'This is so freaking cute!'  
  
"They say you never know what you had until you lose it. And it's true. But I know what I have right now, and I'm not gonna let you go, Hermione. Not now, not ever. No matter what. No matter who. You are a very talented, very sexy, very violent witch. My talented, sexy, still very violent, witch."  
  
And then he kissed me.  
  
In front of everyone.  
  
Including Ron and Harry.  
  
-  
  
Valentine's Day-If I could keep track of time in my stories, this is what would have happened on Valentine's Day.  
  
He uncovered my eyes. We were back by the lake, under the very tree we'd slept under that night. Every single leaf had been changed into a small red heart, and they were glowing.  
  
"Draco..." I gasped. "When did you...how...when did you ever have the time to do this all?"  
  
"Hey," Draco grinned. "Like you said, who needs sleep?" 


End file.
